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perfect Martini

Written by matt

Sunday, 28 May 2006

Everybody has their own idea of what a good martini is and how it is made. This is my favorite way to make a martini.

Lets get a few minor things out of the way. A good martini does not include apples, butterscotch, lemons, nipples, belly-buttons, a glass-as-big-as-your-head, pineapple, or even vodka. A good martini is created with gin, and care.

Now, lets proceed.

First off you need to get your nice, plain martini glass filled with ice. What you are doing is chilling the glass so it is not warm or room temperature.

Now pour into the glass full of ice 1/2 shot of Vermouth. I use the basic ole dry Vermouth you can get from Kroger or your basic booze store. Old school martini purists keep your hats on, the Vermouth won't stay in there long.

This will be a very dry martini, but not so dry its totally devoid of Vermouth. There is a fine line between a dry martini, and a glass of gin.

I will be the first to tell you I use some borderline shit ingredients. I can't afford the Bombay Sapphire gin I prefer, nor can I afford the fancier Vermouth. I CAN afford however to buy the best stuff I can find on my budget. Currently I use Seagram's extra dry gin and Gallo Vermouth. I know there is better, but it's what's readily available to me.

There is much worse stuff out there.

I have a small drink shaker I use because it makes enough for one good sized drink for me. I have a bigger shaker but it's very rare that I need to make martini's for more then just me or one friend.

Typically a martini mixture is 4 parts to 1 part Vermouth, or 3-1. I have always found this to be more vermouth then I like so I don't make the martini the typical way. I simply pour how much Gin I want into my shaker and the Vermouth will come in later in the process. This drink will be made with 2 parts of gin into the martini shaker. If I wanted a full glass I would have gone with 3 parts.

Add a handful of ice to the shaker.

shake shake shake...

I like to wrap the shaker up in a towel and twist it tight a few times. This will help save a drink spill disaster if the shaking gets overzealous, as well as keep the cool in one place. In theory it keeps the shaker colder.

Truth be told I don't know why I do it, I just do.

Now, take your martin glass filled with ice and a sprinkling of vermouth and toss the contents into the sink.

The ice and vermouth did its job to the glass and now the excess is removed.

The glass is now slightly cooler then room temperature, and the vermouth should be lightly coated around the inside of the glass. Give the glass a spin with your fingers to twirl the vermouth/melted ice mixture a round a bit. This makes everything slightly even inside the glass. (It's hard to see in this picture what I am trying to explain. )