Martini (cocktail)
| IBA Official Cocktail | |
|---|---|
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| The martini is one of the most widely known cocktails. | |
| Type | Cocktail |
| Primary alcohol by volume | |
| Served | Straight up; without ice |
| Standard garnish |
Olive or lemon peel |
| Standard drinkware |
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| IBA specified ingredients* | |
| Preparation | Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain in chilled martini cocktail glass. Squeeze oil from lemon peel onto the drink, or garnish with olive. |
| * Martini recipe at International Bartenders Association | |
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth and garnished with an olive. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken once called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet,"[1] and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude."[2] It is also 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.
Contents |
Preparation
IBA specified ingredients: 5.5 cl gin, 1.5 cl dry vermouth
Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. The ingredients are mixed then strained and served "straight up" (without ice) in a chilled martini 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).
Although there are many variations, in modern practice the standard martini is a mix of gin and dry vermouth in a four to one ratio. Shaker mixing is common due to influences of popular culture, notably the fictional spy James Bond, who always asked for his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred" (the James Bond version of the martini was originally a Vesper), 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."
Alternate preparation: Mixing with ice (shaking or stirring) then straining causes the drink to be cooled and some of the ice to melt. Depending a number of factors, more or less ice can melt resulting in a somewhat unpredictable result. To remedy this: Gin is kept in the freezer (it will not freeze due to its alcohol content). Gin can be added directly to the glass with ice water (1:1 ratio), dry vermouth, and is stirred briefly.
Martini origins and mixology
Martini & Rossi created Martini Rosso dry vermouth in 1863. When the drink arrived in the US a bartender may have mixed some gin with the Martini brand vermouth and simply called the drink a martini. If this is the case, the name and place of this event are unknown, but the name similarities of Martini vermouth and the American martini cocktail are evident. 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.[3]
Another theory states the origin of the martini to be at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City in 1911. According to this theory, the bartender who created it was named Martini.[4]
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 Ian Fleming books ordered his "shaken, not stirred", a departure from the default and properly called a Bradford.[5] 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.[6]
In some places, a shaken martini is referred to as a "martini James Bond" or a "007" — Fleming actually named one of 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.[7]
Some references also cite a classic difference in the fundamental recipe of the drink.[8] 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 its absence, is said to be the origin of the drink's name.
Martini variations
The Martinez
The Martinez is considered by many to be "the great grandfather of the Martini cocktail"[9]
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 "gomme (sugar) syrup, if the guest prefers it very sweet."
Gibson
| IBA Official Cocktail | |
|---|---|
| Type | Cocktail |
| Primary alcohol by volume | |
| Served | stirred |
| Standard garnish | |
| Standard drinkware |
|
| IBA specified ingredients* | |
| Preparation | *Stir well in a shaker with ice, then strain into glass. Garnish and serve |
| * Gibson recipe at International Bartenders Association | |
Although Charles Dana Gibson is often said to be responsible for the creation of the Gibson (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 olive and named the drink after the patron. Other stories involve different Gibsons, such as an apocryphal American diplomat who served in Europe during Prohibition. Although he was a teetotaller, he often had to attend receptions where cocktails were served. To avoid an awkward situation, Gibson would ask the staff to fill his martini glass with cold water and garnish it with a small onion so that he could pick it out among the gin drinks. A similar story postulates a savvy investment banker named Gibson, who would take his clients out for the proverbial three-martini business lunches. He purportedly had the bartender serve him cold water, permitting him to remain sober while his clients became intoxicated; the cocktail onion garnish served to distinguish his beverage from those of his clients.
Another version of the origin story given by Charles McCabe of the San Francisco Chronicle states it is from San Francisco. In the early 1970s he interviewed Allan P Gibson (1923–2005) and included the story in The Good Man's Weakness by Charles McCabe. A.P. Gibson remembered that when he was a boy his great-uncle Walter D. K. Gibson (1864–1938) was said to have created it at the Bohemian Club in the 1890s. Charles Clegg, when asked about it by Herb Caen, also said it was from San Francisco[10] Eric Felton, writing in the Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2009 "A Thoroughly Western Cocktail" considers this version correct, citing Ward Thompson, a Bohemian Club member whose mention of it in 1898 as the first recorded in print.
Case:245 F.2d 524, Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., Executor of the Will of Walter D. K. Gibson, Deceased, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee., No. 15046. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit, May 6, 1957, Rehearing Denied June 4, 1957</ref> at the Bohemian Club around 1898[11] or 1900.
The Smoky Martini
A more recent variation is the Smoky Martini, where the dry vermouth is substituted with a dash of Scotch whisky and a lemon peel is used for the garnish. A London Dry Gin is recommended, and to carry the smokiness a peaty Scotch such as an Islay whisky (e.g. Laphroaig) or peatier blended Scotch (Johnnie Walker black or green label) is used. The variety and strengths of Gin and the peaty scotches available make this a cocktail ripe for experimentation. For example, a lighter, more crisp Gin like Plymouth or Tanqueray might go well with the spritely Laphroaig or sweeter Bowmore Scotch. If a potent, "meaty" Gin such as Junipero or Hendrick's is used then an equally powerful Scotch will be needed to stand up to it; Ardbegh or Lagavulin would make powerful if not overwhelming companions. More ethereal, delicate combinations are available such as standard white-label Bombay Dry Gin, and Caol Ila. In any combination, the lemon rind garnish should be peeled atop the glass as to mist it with lemon.
Standard recipe for Smoky Martini:
- 2.5 oz. London Dry Gin
- Dash of Scotch
- Lemon peel garnish
Preparation: Peel lemon rind garnish above empty Martini glass. Mix Gin and Scotch in shaker full of ice, shake for 30 seconds. Pour into Martini glass, add lemon peel garnish and serve.
In popular culture
Western culture has created a virtual mythology around the martini, in part because of the many legendary historical and fictional figures who favoured it, among them Winston Churchill, Truman Capote, J. Robert Oppenheimer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cary Grant, U.S. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Richard M. Nixon,[12] and the fictional James Bond. By the 1960s, the three-martini lunch had become a symbol of the opulence of the life of the American business executive; by Jimmy Carter's 1976 run for President, it had similarly become a point of condemnation of Corporate America.
The martini has become a symbol for cocktails and nightlife in general; American bars often have on their signs a picture of a conical martini glass garnished with an olive. In Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail, Lowell Edmunds, a classics professor and doyen of martini lore, analyzes the cocktail's symbolic potency in considerable depth.
The martini appears frequently in books and movies in Anglo-American culture. The best-known fictional martini drinker is Ian Fleming's James Bond, who is famous for his preferred drink, a very dry vodka martini "shaken, not stirred" (see above). Next best-known fictional martini consumers are Captains Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John McIntyre, and BJ Hunnicutt (characters from the M*A*S*H TV series and film) who have their own still in their tent, "The Swamp", to meet their martini needs. The super-sleuth Nick Charles (played by William Powell) in The Thin Man (1934) famously instructed a bartender: “You see, the important thing is the rhythm. You always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to a foxtrot. A Bronx to a two-step time. A dry Martini you always shake to waltz time."
See also
- List of cocktails
- Martini Shot, a film industry slang term for the last shot of the day, because "the next shot is out of a glass"
References
- ↑ Edmunds, Lowell (1981). Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5971-9.
- ↑ Conrad, Barnaby, III (1995). The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic. Chronicle Books. pp. 10–11. ISBN 0-8118-0717-7.
- ↑ http://www.geocities.com/martinisu/
- ↑ Gasnier, Vincent (2007). Drinks. DK Adult. p. 376.
- ↑ Embury, David (1948) [1948], The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, p. 101, LCCN 48-009361
- ↑ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7225/1600
- ↑ http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1859/why-did-james-bond-want-his-martinis-shaken-not-stirred
- ↑ Mr. Boston Official Bartenders Guide - p. 25
- ↑ "How to Make a Martinez Cocktail - the Grandfather of the Martini", YouTube - Retrieved on 3/12/09
- ↑ One Man's San Francisco p.155, Herb Caen
- ↑ Classic Cocktails, New York Times
- ↑ Clines, Francis X. (19 Dec 1995). "The Nixon Tapes Still Draw the Curious". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/19/us/the-nixon-tapes-still-draw-the-curious.html.
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External links
- Gadberry, Brad (2008-01-12). "The Martini FAQ". http://www.rdwarf.com/mink/martinifaq.html. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- History of the Martini: A talk with Max Rudin 29 December 1997 (real audio format)