What is a good simple martini?
I want to drink a martini tonight, okay a few!! I want to buy the ingredients but i don’t want to spend a fortune. What should I buy?
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39 Answers
Vodka or gin
Vermouth
I usually mix it 2–1 but it depends on how you like it.
Use olives and the juice if you like it dirty, or lemon zest.
The secret is a very chilled glass.
Sorry I guess I should specify, I like something a little fruitier.
i dribble a little dry vermouth into a cocktail glass, coat the inside of the glass and pour out the rest.
in a shaker, with a few (no more than 3) cubes of ice, pour one capful of vermouth and 2 shots chilled vodka. shake, pour.
lemon peel rind or 3 olives.
get blasted. repeat.
fruitier?!
uh – well, what do you like already?
@erincollins <shudder to think>
ok. well. try the website @elijahsuicide suggested. i drink more straight martinis.
I did have a cool mojito at PF Changs a while back. You’d need lemon rum, limes and mint to make it (plus some sprite i suppose).
When you say “Martini,” I assume you mean the singular Martini cocktail:
2 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
stir with cracked ice
strain into chilled cocktail glass
garnish with olive
If you mean “cocktail” instead of “martini”, try this one:
Maiden’s Prayer
3/4 oz Bacardi light rum
3/4 oz Tanqueray gin
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
shake with cracked ice
strain into chilled cocktail glass
lemon wheel garnish
I’ll be your best friend if you’ll start using “cocktail” instead of “martini.” It’s a mistake in naming, I have no idea where it started.
Thank you, Dave. I didn’t want to have to be the guy who says it every time.
Can you explain the cocktail/ martini thing to me guys?
I assume you mean once you add anything else to a martini it becomes a cocktail, but I want to make sure I’m not missing something here.
Sure.
The Martini is a drink. (you can read the history on wiki)
It is made with gin and vermouth. Only. Ever. (in differing proportions depending on where you are, in history)
A cocktail is a category of drink. It is usually distinguished by having at least two liquid ingredients, one of which is alcohol. Although two is more likely. Ingredients here can also include sweeteners, juices, aromatized wines, bitters, etc.
On a seperate topic, and one that, I believe, is more in line with the question here is the “Cocktail Glass”. To begin, and I cannot stress this enough, there is no such animal as a “Martini Glass”. Period. The piece of stemmed barware characterized by a conic bowl is called a “Cocktail Glass”. (not to be confused with the category of drink mentioned earlier because cocktails can come in various glasses.)
Unless I’m wrong, what the poster wants is a fruity cocktail served chilled, up, in a cocktail glass. I’d second Dave’s suggestion of The Maiden’s Prayer because it is flavorful, somewhat sweet, and also somewhat challenging to the palate. A cocktail shouldn’t be able to be guzzled like fruit punch. It should be sipped, savored.
That being said, If you want chuggable buy some inexpensive raspberry flavoued vodka and shake with a little cranberry and oj and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and get some drink on. :)
@erincollins: wanna know how wrong you are?
Another angle: the Martini is a cocktail. So is the Margarita, the Manhattan, the Cuba Libre, etc.
“Cocktail” and “Martini” are not interchangeable. The Lemon Drop is not a Martini. It’s a cocktail. The Cosmopolitan is not a Martini. It’s a cocktail.
The Martini is gin (or vodka if specified) and vermouth. There are minor variations – olive brine makes a Dirty Martini, a drop of Scotch in the mix makes a Smoky Martini. Adding cranberry juice and peach schnapps makes a non-Martini; I don’t know what it is at that point. Some kind of barfy cocktail, probably named something like “Nipple on the Beach” or whatever.
You can use Smirnoff vodka but don’t skimp on the gin, use Tanqueray. I like bitters with mine.
That’s a “Pink Gin” cocktail.
@PupnTaco The one I just described? What is a good brand of bitters? I usually use Stoli or some other semi-premium vodka and olives.
Angostura is the typical, Peychaud’s are unique to New Orleans drinks. Fee Brothers make a whole line of aromatic bitters (grapefruit!!) – if you don’t know it, check out Imbibe magazine. Also, I have a whole section on “Bar and Grill” at my blog.
That’s what I use, Angostura. Excellent! Thank you. It’s a Pink Gin?
oh btw should have just called me…?
Dave, I love Fee Bros. Also chesk out The Bitter Truth. It takes a while for them to get here from Germany, but so worth it.
Just gin and dry vermouth, viz. Martini & Rossi, hence the name. Tanqueray gin is a good one, if you like the stuff. The olive is NOT optional; if you subtitute an onion, you have a Gibson. If you substitute anything else, or modify the ingredients, you have a frooty-poo concoction not suitable for human consumption. Whoever invented the so-called Raspberry (or substitute another frooty-poo here) Martini should be shot.
Ratio of gin to vermouth varies from recipe to recipe. 2:1 is inhumane. The other end of the extreme is facing Italy as you pour the gin. 4:1 is a good place to start.
The gin itself should be chilled in the freezer, along with the glass. As with all liquors, contact with ice or any other form of water should be avoided at all costs.
@IchtheosaurusRex well apparently you need to get with times because if you order a martini anywhere you are getting vodka, not gin, unless you specify. Plus those fruity drinks are only called martinis because they are served in martini glasses. Let it be. We can’t all be martini snobs…
If it’s snobbery to be fascinated by quality, craft, and tradition, then I’ll be right up front in the snob parade waving the biggest flag.
Oh dear madcapper. Please read my earlier posts. There is no such animal as a Martini Glass. ;)
@madcapper :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martini_(cocktail)
“The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth. Sometimes, vodka is substituted for gin, although this is properly called a vodka martini.”
Go tell the guys at Wiki they’re full of shit. See how long your contibution stays up.
@IchtheosaurusRex well too bad I happened to have bar tended and go out to bars often and I can tell you with a certainty that if you walk up to a bar and order a Martini you are getting vodka… so wiki can go fuck itself.
also I think instead of arguing about the fucking difference between what a a cocktail and a martini is perhaps you should have given some drink suggestions to the poster. We are all happy that you can look up wikipedia articles and copy and paste but clearly you don’t know any drinks… so shut up.
@madcapper , I was getting thrown out of gin joints before you were an itch in your daddy’s pants. I know how to make a martini and you obviously don’t. Anyone without major brain damage knows that vodka is drunk neat if at all. You mention that you tended bar, using the past tense. Probably for the best. If I walked into a bar and ordered a martini, and got one made with vodka, I’d want the son of a bitch fired on the spot.
@madcapper: note I not only suggested a drink, I gave the recipe. From memory. Why so defensive about vodka? You on the board at Smirnoff?
Response moderated
@PupnTaco I am not defending vodka I was simply stating a fact. In fact I don’t drink vodka hardly at all. I prefer whiskey…
The more F bombs they throw, the more you know you have them beat.
Response moderated
[mod says:] Personal attacks removed.
oh lord what I said wasn’t that mean… I merely stated that he has made no point and beat me on absolutely nothing.
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