Tag: cocktail history

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Classic Recipe: The Martini

As promised in my recent review of Requin’s martini service, today’s post shows you how to make a martini at home.  This cocktail is a true classic, well more than a hundred years old.  In fact, by 1891, the Kansas City Star could chastise the “thirsty New Yorker” for being taken with the martini on the ground that the cocktail was “not very new.”  (The same article nevertheless acknowledged the versatility of the drink.  It conceded that the martini was the form in which “the casual, the occasional, the weary, the enthusiastic, the going-to-bed-now, or the just-up New Yorker takes his poison.”)

Not surprisingly, a drink with such history has enjoyed multiple iterations.  The typical recipe uses gin, for example, but some spies—er, drinkers, prefer vodka.  Proportions also vary, anywhere from a one-to-one ratio of gin and vermouth to essentially all gin, with vermouth supplied only (if at all) by an atomizing sprayer or, as Winston Churchill preferred it, by observation “from across the room.”  Garnishes, too, have varied, including lemon peel, olives, and cocktail onions.  Even the method of combining the ingredients – shaking or stirring – is subject to modification.

What follows is my preferred approach.  But the critical drinker may wish to take a cue from experience and tinker with the particulars.  My classic martini is made with gin, dry vermouth, and orange bitters, and garnished with an olive.  When done right, it looks like this:

Classic Martini

Here’s how to do it.  Put an olive or two in a martini glass or coupe.  Add a barspoon of olive brine (or more if you prefer a “dirtier” drink) to the glass.  In a mixing glass, combine a dash of orange bitters, 1/4 ounce of dry vermouth (I used Dolin) and 2 3/4 ounces of gin (I used Botanist).  Add ice to the glass and stir.  Strain into the glass with the olives.

Enjoy!

Classic Martini Recipe
Print Recipe

Classic Martini

This is a recipe for a great martini, my favorite cocktail, featuring gin, a tiny bit of vermouth, a dash of orange bitters, and a couple of olives.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Spirit-Forward
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 175kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 3/4 oz. gin I used Botanist
  • 1/4 oz. dry vermouth I used Dolin
  • 1 dash orange bitters I used Fee Brothers

Instructions

  • Place two olives and a bar-spoonful of olive juice in a martini glass.
  • Combine the gin, vermouth, and orange bitters in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
  • Strain into the martini glass.
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Repeal Day 2017

Happy Repeal Day!  On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment became effective when Utah became the 36th state to ratify it.  As a result, Prohibition, made possible by the 18th amendment, became a dead letter.  Celebration ensued:

It seems only natural that many bars and cocktail enthusiasts now celebrate Repeal Day with happy hours, special cocktails, or even full-on black-tie affairs.  (See my recent post on December cocktail events in D.C. for coverage of the Repeal Day bash at Jack Rose and the 10th annual gala put on by the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild, for example.)

But wait!  The bars did not reopen on December 5, 1933, at least not everywhere.  Of particular interest to my D.C.-area history buffs, they did not reopen immediately in the District or Virginia.  As reported by the Washington Evening Star, Maryland “was busily engaged in arranging to go wet” pursuant to legislation that “went through its final steps in the Legislature in Annapolis” on December 4 and was presented to the governor for his signature the morning of Repeal Day.

But things were different in the District.  It remained subject to the Volstead Act, the legislation that gave force to Prohibition under the 18th Amendment:

The ending of the eighteenth amendment today finds Washington legally dry under the Volstead law, awaiting the assembling of Congress next month to consider liquor control legislation for the National Capital.

. . . .

The Volstead law continues in force in Washington under a recent ruling of Attorney General Cummings, who held that the national prohibition act will continue to be operative in the District and in the Territories until some action is taken by Congress.

It was Prohibition without Representation!  Nevertheless, District residents were not entirely without recourse.  The Evening Star went on to report that there was “reason to believe . . . that prosecuting officials will take the liberal attitude toward the matter and that residents bringing liquor into the District for their own personal use will not be in danger of any criminal prosecution.”

Thus, it seems reasonable to speculate that a least a few Repeal Day parties were held in the District that night, even if, as the Evening Star reported the next day, “the festivities [nationwide] seemed to lack the fervor some had forecast.”  (Perhaps the reporters weren’t invited to the right parties.)  And in any event, it seems more than fair to mark the occasion today.  Have fun out there!