Dry Martini

DRY MARTINI

Probably the most iconic cocktail of all time, the Martini has arrived! I here-by present you with the classic dry version of it. Before we get down to business, there are numerous ways you can do it. The relative proportion of vermouth to gin varies depending on how you like yours to be done. I always remember my mother saying how a bartender made the martini extra dry; he just showed the bottle of vermouth to the customer before proceeding in making the cocktail meaning he did not even use vermouth to begin with! A copy-pasted story from Wikipedia tells how Noël Coward suggested that the ideal martini should be made by "filling the glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy." That's some crazy shit right there...

Nonetheless, this is how I made this:

• roughly 2.5 cl dry vermouth
• 5 cl gin

I did some preparations before-hand. I had my mixing glass in the fridge, likewise the vermouth and gin were both there. I also added some ice cubes in my cocktail glass and filled it with water. Basically, all of my ingredients and tools were properly chilled.

First, I filled my mixing glass with ice and poured over the vermouth. I then stirred it only a couple of times before discarding the vermouth. My ice now had that aromatic flavor from the fortified wine I used, but none of it is included in the final product.

I then added the gin and stirred the drink for about 20-25 seconds, chilling it well (and giving some dilution in the process). I discarded the ice-water mixture from the cocktail glass and strained my gin in it.

Finally I cut a piece of lemon peel, pressed the essential oils over the drink, gently rubbed the peel around the rim of the glass and dropped it in.

The classic martini.

Now a few words about the drink and its taste. When I was a young boy, I remember I ordered this drink at a restaurant. At that time it tasted like crap. Fair enough, my taste buds had not developed yet. But now...well I'll be damned, this was something completely different! The lemon peel freshened this cocktail up by the magnitude of a thousand! Albeit being "only gin in a glass", I could easily drink this without grinning.

Visually this cocktail is aesthetic, beautiful, elegant, simple and complex in flavors. Classy as fuck.