Lots of perfectly nice people, including James Bond, like a vodka Martini. I would pedantically argue that there is no such thing. The Martini is a gin cocktail. It is the gin cocktail. (Gin and tonic, close second.) What writer and grammar maven E.B. White called “the elixir of solitude” and writer and professional grump H.L. Mencken called “the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet” has been immortalized tirelessly, most thoroughly in Bernard Devoto’s The Hour, a rant of the first water, devoted to the cocktail hour (by which he means several Martinis.)
There are (too) many jokes about the Martini’s proportion of vermouth to gin. Technically, a Martini can be made “sweet” (sweet vermouth), dry (dry vermouth) or “perfect” (equal parts of sweet and dry). But many argue that “perfect” means waving the vermouth bottle in the general direction of the glass.
6 cL gin
1 cL dry vermouth
Put into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into a chilled Martini glass and garnish with an olive or squeeze lemon oil from lemon zest into the drink.
Casey Metzger, Top Shelf
Smoking Gun (A Martini twist)
1.5 oz. vodka
1 tsp. smoked onion vermouth
.5 oz. dry vermouth
Place in a mixing glass. Lightly shake and strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with smoked onions on a skewer.
To make the smoked onions;
Preheat Traeger smoker to the smoke setting.
Once it’s at temp, pour a jar of vermouth-soaked cocktail onions into a shallow sheet pan. Smoke for 45 minutes.
See the other Classic Cocktails:
The Rob Roy – Scotch | The Daiquiri – Rum | The Bloody Mary – Vodka | The Sidecar – Cognac | The Old Fashioned – Bourbon | The Margarita – Tequila
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See more inside our 2017 September/October Issue.
