by Ian Roth

Created on: August 30, 2008

As a general rule I like to keep an open mind with food and drink. In most cases the are many ways to make a particular food or drink, each with its own pleasant and subtle nuances, with no single preparation standing out as entirely superior. With the Martini this is absolutely not the case. Not all martinis are created equal, in fact very few of the drinks given the name martini are worthy of the title. A good martini is one of the most fantastic tasting drinks ever made. It should have an incredibly complex flavour, one prominent bold and lingering taste augmented by dozens of fleeting flavours dancing over your tongue. Bad martinis taste like lighter fluid.

First of all a true martini has three and only three ingredients: gin, dry vermouth, and an olive. I personally consider the vodka martini to be a vile debasement of a fine drink, but I'm somewhat biased by my hate for the taste of vodka. Furthermore the cocktails known as appletinis, chocotinis and so forth are not the drinks I'm writing about. They in no way resemble a martini and really ought to have different names.

Your choice of gin will be one of the biggest factors in the quality of your martini. Try to pick something with a strong juniper and coriander taste. My favourite is Tanquerary. Sweet citrus flavoured gins like Bombay Saphire make for excellent gin and tonic but have no place in a martini. The Vermouth you pick is also important. The drier the better. I personally Noilly Prat.

After choosing your liquors your ready to begin preparing a martini. The process is actually quite simple. First the glass needs to be chilled. This can be done by refrigerating the glass or by filling the glass with ice before making the drink. Next you need to decide how you will be mixing the drink. The goal is to cool the drink down and mix the ingredients while adding as little water as possible. There are really two options here: stirring with ice and stirring without ice. A martini should never be shaken as this will both incorporate tiny air bubbles which ruin the taste and will water the drink down a good deal. I recommend stirring with ice only if using room temperature gin. If you have pre-chilled your gin stirring without ice will allow you to reduce the amount of water that goes into the drink. However, a tiny amount of water does turn your martini a little more opaque which makes for better colour, so if you stir the drink without ice I recommend using ice to chill the glass.

I about 3 ounces of gin to a quarter ounce vermouth gives the perfect ratio, however many people prefer a somewhat smaller drink, so the volume can be adjusted accordingly. One easy way to get the right amount of vermouth without actually measuring it is to use the "in and out" method. This involves pouring vermouth into the glass, swirling it, and pouring it out again, leaving a thin coating of vermouth on the glass. Keep in mind that this wont work if there is already a coating of water on the glass from chilling it with ice.

The last step is to add an olive. Some people like to add a little brine along with the olive for a "dirty" martini. I feel the olive itself usually lends the right amount of brine flavour to the drink.

One final note. Unlike most drinks, it's perfectly fine to slurp a cocktail. Because of the shape of the glass it's hard to drink it any other way and still savour it.

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