The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth. The drink is almost always garnished with an olive or, less commonly, a sliver of lemon peel. It is often described as being "crisp". Over the years, the martini has become one of the most well-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken once called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet", and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude". It is the drink of the one-time "three-martini lunch" of business executives.
The martini is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks , along with many other favorite cocktails.
Preparation
While variations are many, a standard modern martini is an approximate four to one ratio, made by combining approximately two ounces (or 55ml) of Gin, and approximately half an ounce (or 15ml) of dry vermouth. Some prefer somewhat less vermouth—about a five or six to one proportion of gin to vermouth. Many bartending schools insist that a cocktail shaker tends to dull the taste of the vermouth,. However, it is relatively common to see a bartender mix a martini with a shaker due in part to the influence of popular cultural figures such as the fictional super-spy James Bond, who asked for his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred" (such a martini is traditionally referred to as a "Bradford"), and super-sleuth Nick Charles (William Powell) in The Thin Man (1934), who instructed a bartender, "A dry Martini you always shake to waltz time." The ingredients are mixed then strained and served "straight up" (without ice) in a chilled cocktail glass, and garnished with either a green olive or a twist of lemon (a strip of the peel, usually squeezed or twisted to express volatile oils onto the surface of the drink).
While the standard martini may call for a four to one ratio of distilled spirits to vermouth, aficionados of the dry martini may reduce the proportion of vermouth drastically for a drier martini. Connoisseurs boast of sweetening the cocktail by merely coating the glass with vermouth. The legend holds that Churchill would get as close to the vermouth bottle as to "look at it from across the room." On the other hand, some experts strongly object to this practice, arguing that a cocktail with one predominant ingredient is no cocktail at all, and furthermore, that the term "dry" has nothing to do with the gin-to-vermouth ratio, but with the use of dry, white, French vermouth instead of sweet, red, Italian vermouth.
A stirred martini will have a more potent, more "pure" taste. Whereas a shaken martini will be somewhat "watered-down" by the ice melting slightly during the vigorous shaking. While the traditional method is to stir all clear drinks, a shaken martini can be just as tasty.
A more recent development that further offends martini purists is the use of "martini" (or the suffix "-tini") to refer to any beverage served in a cocktail glass, such as the appletini, the chocolatini, or the pineapple martini.
Martini origins and mixology
Some say there is an American creation story that may or may not be based in fact. The story goes that during the days of the California Gold Rush, in 1849, a miner struck it rich and was returning to San Francisco. The miner, arriving in Martinez, the first large town he hit, wanted to celebrate. He walked into our leading bar and asked for Champagne, a beverage which was not available. However, the bartender told him (the miner) that he had something much better than Champagne and served a drink which the bartender said was a "Martinez Special". The miner liked the drink and ordered for the house. After he woke up, some time later, he proceeded on to San Francisco where he immediately went to a prominent bar and ordered a "Martinez Special". The bartender of course had never heard of the drink and asked the miner how it was made and where he had heard of the drink. The miner said that the drink was made with one part of very dry Sauterne wine and three parts of Gin, stir with ice and finish with an olive and was made in Martinez. The bartender tried the drink himself and liked it and of course had his friends drink it. Over a period of years the name Martinez became martini.
However, a more logically consistent theory comes from the use of vermouth in the martini cocktail. Martini & Rossi created Martini Rosso dry vermouth in 1863. When the drink arrived in the US an innovative barkeep may have mixed some gin with the Martini brand vermouth and simply called the delicious drink a martini. The name and place of this legendary bartender have been lost to time, but the name similarities of Martini vermouth and the American martini cocktail cannot be dismissed as coincidence. The presence of a Martini brand vermouth that derives its name from an Italian family suggests that the martini cocktail originated in the US after the Martini and Rossi vermouth was imported into America in the 19th century.
For absolute purists, the bottle of gin, the mixing glass, and the vermouth are all at room temperature prior to mixing. This is so a small quantity of cold water is diluted into the drink when the ingredients are stirred with ice. This infusion of water particularly brings out the floral notes of juniper, gin's primary flavoring ingredient. The dilution of the cocktail also brightens the flavors, opens the nose, and allows more delicate notes to blossom on the palate. Unfortunately, many bartenders now store their gin and mixing glass in a freezer, which results in a blunter, more one-dimensional drink with an oily, soft texture. As far as frozen implements go, it is acceptable to cocktail purists to pour a martini into a frozen cocktail glass, as, by this point in the drink-making process, the dilution has already taken place.
W. Somerset Maugham declared that "martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other," James Bond from the Albert R. Broccoli films ordered his "shaken, not stirred", a departure from the default and properly called a Bradford .(Embury 1948, p. 101) The concept of "bruising the gin" as a result of shaking a martini is an oft-debated topic. The term comes from an older argument over whether or not to bruise the mint in preparing a mint julep, and with gin refers to a certain bitterness developed by shaking. A shaken martini is different from stirred for a few reasons. The shaking action breaks up the ice and adds more water, slightly weakening the drink but also altering the taste. Some would say the shaken martini has a "more rounded" taste. Others, usually citing obscure scientific studies, say that shaking causes more of a certain class of molecules (aldehydes) to bond with oxygen, resulting in a "sharper" taste. Shaking also adds tiny air bubbles and ice particles, which can lead to a cloudy drink instead of a clear one. If the drink is used as an aperitif, to cleanse the mouth before eating, the tiny air bubbles restrict the gin (or vodka) from reaching all tastebuds. This is why purists would claim that a martini should always be stirred. Some martini devotees believe the vermouth is more evenly distributed by shaking, which can alter the flavor and texture of the beverage as well. Recent medical research has shown that shaken martinis have a slightly higher antioxidant level than those stirred, though the exact mechanism for this was not derived. In some places, a shaken martini is referred to as a "martini James Bond" or a "007"—Fleming actually named Bond's drink the "Vesper", after the heroine of the first novel Casino Royale , though it is a specific recipe using gin, vodka, and Lillet.
Some references also cite a classic difference in the fundamental recipe of the drink. While the modern martini uses very little Vermouth in relation to Gin or Vodka - it is documented that pre-prohibition martinis were equal parts Gin and Vermouth. The abundance of "dry" Vermouth, and not the absence of vermouth, is said to be the origin of the drink's name.
Martini variations
Flavored vodka martinis are rapidly becoming a trend among new drinkers. Unlike gin, vodka has a neutral flavor which allows it to easily mix with other flavors to make a wide variety of flavored martinis.
Instead of the typical cocktail olive, cocktail onion, or lemon twist, unique garnishes are being used in these new flavored martinis. These garnishes include marinated capers, fresh herbs, or olives stuffed with blue cheese, anchovies, pickled mushrooms (martini joe), or sun-dried tomatoes.
The Martinez (the original)
The Martinez is considered by many to be "the great grandfather of the Martini cocktail"
Dash of bitters; 2 dashes maraschino liqueur; 1 pony Old Tom gin; 1 wine glass vermouth; 1/4 slice lemon;
Mix all ingredients, except lemon, in a shaker with cracked ice, stir (not shake), then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Note: Original recipe advised adding two dashes of "gum (sugar) syrup, if the guest prefers it very sweet."
Gibson
Although Charles Dana Gibson is most likely responsible for the creation of the Gibson martini (where a pickled onion serves as the garnish), the details are debated and several alternate stories exist. In one story, Gibson challenged Charley Connolly, the bartender of the Players Club in New York City, to improve upon the martini's recipe, so Connolly simply substituted an onion for the
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