Martini (cocktail)
| IBA official cocktail | |
|---|---|
 The martini is one of the most widely known cocktails | |
| Type | Cocktail |
| Base spirit | |
| Served | Straight up: chilled, without ice |
| Standard garnish | Olive or lemon peel |
| Standard drinkware | .svg) |
| 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 or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet"[1] and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude".[2]
The martini is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
Preparation
IBA specified ingredients: 5.5 cl gin, 1.5 cl dry vermouth
Pouring all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes, 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).
Although there are many variations, in modern practice the standard martini is a mix of gin coupled with dry vermouth usually in a five-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 martini to be "shaken, not stirred". However, shaking has a long history. Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) prescribes shaking for all its martini recipes.[citation needed]
Noel Coward suggested that a perfect martini should be made by "filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy", meaning the less vermouth added to the gin the better the resulting drink.[citation needed]
The dryness of a martini refers to the amount of vermouth used in the drink, with a very dry martini having little or no Vermouth.[3]
Martini origins and mixology
The exact origin of the martini is unclear however the most likely explanation is that it was simply a shortening of the main ingredient, Martini branded vermouth. One popular alternative suggests it evolved from a cocktail called the Martinez served at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco in 1862, which people frequented before taking an evening ferry to the nearby town of Martinez. Another theory links the origin of the martini to the name of a bartender who concocted the drink at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City in 1911.[4]
The original Martinez cocktail consisted of two ounces of Italian Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth, one ounce Old Tom sweet gin, two dashes maraschino liquor, one dash bitters, shaken, and served with a twist of lemon.[citation needed] By the end of the 19th century, the martini had morphed into a simpler form: two dashes of orange bitters, mixed with half a jigger of dry French vermouth and half a jigger of dry English gin, stirred and served with an olive.[citation needed]
But it was Prohibition and the relative ease of illegal gin manufacture that led to the martini's rise as the predominant cocktail of the mid 20th century in the United States. With the repeal of Prohibition, and the ready availability of quality gin, the drink became progressively dryer. In the 1970s and 80s, the martini came to be seen as old-fashioned and was replaced by more intricate cocktails and wine spritzers, but the mid-1990s saw a resurgence in the drink and an explosion of new versions.
Some of the newer versions (e.g., appletini, peach martini, chocolate martini), take their name from the ingredients, but not from the cocktail glass they share with the martini.
Cultural references
 |
- W. Somerset Maugham declared "martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other."
- James Bond ordered his "shaken, not stirred", which is properly called a "Bradford".[5]
- In an episode of the TV series The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlett remarks of James Bond's ordering technique: "James was ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it".
- In the James Bond episode of Mythbusters, the producers test the difference between shaken and stirred martinis, finding that shaken martinis contain more ice, which affects the taste and appearance of the martini.
See also
- Three martini lunch
- Gibson (cocktail)
- Vesper (cocktail)
- List of cocktails
- Martini Shot, a film industry 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.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "High and Dry". Salon.com. 9 April 1997. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ 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 48-0
External links
- Gadberry, Brad (12 January 2008). "The Martini FAQ". Retrieved 10 August 2008.
- History of the Martini: A talk with Max Rudin 29 December 1997 (real audio format)
