cocktail_martini

Martini

The Martini is one of the world’s most famous cocktails, with a clean, clear flavour and appearance that’s celebrated in so many books and films. But there remains that one lingering question when you come to make it: do I shake or stir?

About this recipe

Ingredients

Gordon's® London Dry Gin

Gordon's® London Dry Gin

Distilling pure spirit with vibrant botanicals, Gordon set the standard for London dry gin with a clean, pure flavour palate, plus subtle juniper aroma.

How to make

Using a jigger, measure 50ml Gordon's London Dry Gin and 5ml vermouth into the shaker.

Stir the mixture vigorously until the surface of the cocktail shaker feels chilled.

Using a cocktail strainer, strain the cocktail into a chilled martini glass.

Place a black olive on top of the drink to garnish.

Be a good host

Everyone loves a bit of finger food and designated drivers will appreciate some fancy soft drinks.

100 Best Martinis - Mixed Drinks

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Top 10 Cocktails

1001 Cocktails - Copyright © 1997-2017

How to Make a Martini

How to Cocktail: Martini

The Martini is probably the world’s most famous cocktail recipe, but do you know how to make one properly? Master mixologist and Liquor.com adviser Simon Ford shows you the right way to make both a gin and a vodka version.

• 2.5 oz Gin
• .5 oz Dry vermouth
• 1 dash Orange bitters (optional)
• Garnish: Lemon twist
• Glass: Cocktail

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

How to Make Martinis

The martini cocktail is a drink associated with power, class, and of course, James Bond. A classic martini features a combination of gin and vermouth, though many people also enjoy vodka martinis. For an even more flavorful option, you can try a dirty martini, which uses the brine from green olives traditionally used to garnish the cocktail to complement the gin and vermouth. When it comes to actually mixing the martini, you can choose between stirring and shaking to see which option you like best.

Ingredients Edit

Steps Edit

Method One of Three:

Whipping Up a Classic Gin Martini Edit

Method Two of Three:

Preparing a Vodka Martini Edit

Method Three of Three:

Fixing a Dirty Martini Edit

Community Q&A

• If he has clean fingers, then yes, this would be fine in the home environment. However, using tongs would be more likely in a commercial environment. Always wash your hands before doing food or drink preparation.

• There are many possible garnishes. Some include: Lemons, limes and oranges in sliced or wedge forms; cocktail olives and onions; citrus peel curled or sliced; pickled vegetables; maraschino cherries; fresh berries; spices, etc.

• A regular toothpick works just fine to hold the garnish for a martini, but cocktail skewers usually have a more decorative look.

Warnings Edit

Things You’ll Need Edit

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About This Article

A wikiHow Staff Editor reviewed this article to make sure it's clear and accurate.

How to Make a Classic Martini Like a Pro

Because it's time to start drinking like a grown-up.

There is no other cocktail that has quite captured the public imagination like the classic martini. Whether it's James Bond drinking his the wrong way—it should be stirred, as shaken martinis tend to be too diluted—or the image of the 1920s flapper, it's a cocktail that exudes both class and sophistication.

And, made right, it also tastes pretty damn good. Luckily it's not very difficult to make it right. All you need are the proper ingredients, a martini shaker, a chilled glass, and a reasonably high alcohol tolerance.

1. Fill a metal shaker with cracked ice.
2. Pour in the dry vermouth (we prefer Noilly Prat), stir briefly, and strain out (this may be discarded).
3. Add 4 ounces of gin (we prefer Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire, or Beefeater). You want it around 94-proof.
4. Stir briskly for about 10 seconds, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an olive or a lemon twist.

There are quite a few variations on the traditional martini. For instance, garnish it with a cocktail onion rather than an olive or lemon and it becomes a Gibson. There are also syrupy sweet concoctions that co-opt the name and the glass but little else. These are to be avoided.

Martini (cocktail)

The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude".

ingredients

• 6 cl (6 parts) gin
• 1 cl (1 parts) dry vermouth

By 1922 the Martini reached its most recognizable form in which London dry gin and dry vermouth are combined at a ratio of 2:1, stirred in a mixing glass with ice cubes, with the optional addition of orange or aromatic bitters, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Over time the generally expected garnish became the drinker's choice of a green olive or a twist of lemon peel.

A dry Martini is made with dry, white vermouth. By the Roaring Twenties, it became common to ask for them. Over the course of the century, the amount of vermouth steadily dropped. During the 1930s the ratio was 3:1 (gin to vermouth), and during the 1940s the ratio was 4:1. During the latter part of the 20th century, 6:1, 8:1, 12:1, 15:1 (the "Montgomery", after British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's supposed penchant for attacking only when in possession of great numerical superiority), or even 50:1 or 100:1 Martinis became considered the norm.

A dirty Martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.

A perfect Martini uses equal amounts of sweet and dry vermouth.

Some Martinis were prepared by filling a cocktail glass with gin, then rubbing a finger of vermouth along the rim. There are those who advocated the elimination of vermouth altogether. According to Noël Coward, "A perfect Martini should be made by filling a glass with gin, then waving it in the general direction of Italy," Italy being a major producer of vermouth. Luis Buñuel used the dry Martini as part of his creative process, regularly using it to sustain "a reverie in a bar". He offers his own recipe, involving Angostura bitters, in his memoir.

In 1966, the American Standards Association (ASA) released K100.1-1966, "Safety Code and Requirements for Dry Martinis," a tongue-in-cheek account of how to make a "standard" dry martini. The latest revision of this document, K100.1-1974, was published by American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the successor to ASA, though it is no longer an active standard.

There are a number of variations on the traditional Martini. The fictional spy James Bond sometimes asked for his Vodka Martinis to be "shaken, not stirred," following Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which prescribes shaking for all its Martini recipes. The proper name for a shaken Martini is a Bradford. However, Somerset Maugham is often quoted as saying that "a Martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another." A Martini may also be served on the rocks, that is, with the ingredients poured over ice cubes and served in an Old-Fashioned glass.

The exact origin of the martini is unclear. In 1863, an Italian vermouth maker started marketing their product under the brand name of Martini, after its director Alessandro Martini, and the brand name may be the source of the cocktail's name.

Another popular theory suggests it evolved from a cocktail called the Martinez served sometime in the early 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, which people frequented before taking an evening ferry to the nearby town of Martinez. Alternatively, the people of Martinez say the drink was first created by a bartender in their town, or maybe the drink was named after the town. Indeed, a "Martinez Cocktail" was first described in Jerry Thomas' 1887 edition of his "Bartender's Guide, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks":

• Take 1 dash of Boker's bitters
• 2 dashes of Maraschino
• 1 pony [1 fl oz] of Old Tom gin
• 1 wine-glass [2 fl oz] of [sweet/Italian] vermouth
• 2 small lumps of ice
• Shake up thoroughly, and strain into a large cocktail glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon in the glass, and serve. If the guest prefers it very sweet, add two dashes of gum syrup.

Numerous cocktails with names and ingredients similar to the modern-day martini were seen in other bartending guides of the late 19th century. For example, in the 1888 Bartenders' Manual there was a recipe for a drink that consisted in part of half a wine glass of Old Tom Gin and a half a wine glass of vermouth.

• Fill the glass up with ice
• 2 or 3 dashes of gomme syrup
• 2 or 3 dashes of bitters; (Boker's genuine only.)
• 1 dash of Curaçao
• ½ wine glassful [1 fl oz] of Old Tom Gin
• ½ wine glassful [1 fl oz] of [sweet/Italian] vermouth
• stir up well with a spoon, strain it into a fancy cocktail glass, squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

The first dry martini is sometimes linked to the name of a bartender who concocted the drink at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City in 1911 or 1912. The "Marguerite Cocktail", first described in 1904, could be considered an early form of the dry Martini, consisting as it did of a 2:1 mix of Plymouth dry gin and dry vermouth, with a dash of orange bitters.

During Prohibition the relative ease of illegal gin manufacture led to the martini's rise as the predominant cocktail of the mid-20th century in the United States. With the repeal of Prohibition, and the ready availability of quality gin, the drink became progressively drier. In the 1970s and 80s, the martini came to be seen as old-fashioned and was replaced by more intricate cocktails and wine spritzers, but the mid-1990s saw a resurgence in the drink and numerous new versions.

Martini Glasses

Martini Glasses

The martini is a classic cocktail, and martini glasses are an essential component of any home bar. For drinks with heavy garnishes such as stuffed olives, choose a larger glass. This size is also perfect during cocktail parties to avoid spilling your beverage as you mingle with guests. Whether you like yours shaken or stirred we have the perfect martini glass to suit your taste. Browse short, tall and stemless martini glasses in styles from classic to modern.

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Perfect Martini

Ingredients (5)

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 ounce dry vermouth
• Ice
• Lemon twist, for garnish
• Green olive (optional)

Classic, elegant, and stiff, the martini is a simple fusion of gin and dry vermouth, stirred together with ice, and strained into a chilled glass. The main variables are the proportion of gin to vermouth, and what you choose to garnish with. This recipe uses a 2-to-1 for the former, though 4-to-1, even 5-to-1, is popular. For some, washing the martini glass with dry vermouth, then dumping the vermouth in the sink before stirring straight gin with ice, is just right. As for garnishing, adding a toothpicked green olive or two is strictly up to you.

To make this into a dirty martini—Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite—add a splash of olive brine from the jar and garnish with a green olive. A Gibson is made exactly like the martini, only garnished with a small cocktail onion.

Instructions

1. 1 Place a martini glass in the freezer to chill, 10 minutes or longer.
2. 2 Measure the gin and vermouth into a mixing glass.
3. 3 Add ice and stir until chilled, about 30 seconds.
4. 4 Strain into the chilled martini glass.
5. 5 Rub the rim of the glass with the lemon twist, drop it into the martini, and serve.

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Martini Cocktail recipe

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posted by S. Levine @ 11:09PM, 1/05/07

1/8 oz (or less) dry vermouth

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posted by Kev @ 04:10PM, 10/05/07

unless we want to make it dry or even drier??

posted by Marcy @ 01:00PM, 11/08/07

posted by Alan Chamberlain @ 01:43PM, 12/21/07

posted by X @ 03:42AM, 1/04/08

I agree with "Classic", in that the martini is a combination rather than just cold gin. I enjoy it with tanqueray 10, and olive is a must. The slight bit of olive brine really does mix in with the drink as well and adds to its character. Plus you get to eat the olive at the end ;)

Now over a century old, the Martini is a true American icon, undeterred by bad times or unsavoury fashion. If it's contents have been known to change with time, note it is only our taste which is spoiled. Rather, it's inspiration to classics like the Cosmopolitan, Negroni Cocktail, and the Bronx is significant. The Gibson, made with the addition of a cocktail onion, and Hemingway's Montgomery both create a refined taste, yet still borrow from the Martini. So too do the Vesper and Vodka-Martini's made famous by Bond's hallmark "Shaken, not Stirred". (Although not strictly Martinis in composition, one might add.)

For information on creating mixed drink recipes, bartending information, and measurements for alcoholic drinks, visit our Bartender Guide.

DrinksMixer.com, A property of SheKnows.com, LLC. © 2017 SheKnows.com, LLC. All rights reserved.

and the following drinks, with similar ingredients.

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Undoubtedly the most famous of gin cocktails, the Martini reserves an unrivalled place at the summit of any cocktail book and is the true test of any bartender’s skills. It’s also the cocktail that generates the most arguments and the “perfect” Martini is an accomplishment so rare to behold, it’s akin to the Holy Grail.

Our Favourite Martini Recipe:

15ml Dry Vermouth

Pour gin and dry vermouth in cocktail shaker with ice. Stir well, then strain into chilled Martini glass. Zest the lemon peel and garnish by twisting it in a perfect spiral.

History/Origins:

An emblem of style and sophistication, the Martini has come to symbolise much more than just a cocktail. It’s more than an option to pick come gin o’clock – it’s the reference drink for cocktail culture and possibly, the most famous of all cocktails across all categories. The Mojito, Cosmopolitans, the Gin & Tonic, there are few cocktails that transcend drinks and have captivated generations in the way the Martini has.

The history of the Martini has countless stories and although there are arguments pointing at different creators; all of them are impossible to verify with any certainty. There is however a common consensus that the Martini was most likely to have been invented in America. The rest written here is our understanding of its legacy, based on what we have read as opposed to hard facts that we can categorically prove.

We feel, the iconic cocktail’s history begins with a drink called the Martinez – which is also the name of a town in California which claims to be the geographical birthplace of the drink we now call the Martini. There is even a plaque in Martinez, California, that commemorates the birth of the Martini. It covers the story of Julio Richelieu’s bar in Martinez around the year 1870. Julio made a gin and vermouth concoction and dropped an olive into the drink before serving it to the customer. Allegedly, this was the birth of the Martini.

One of the oldest recipes can be found in The Bon Vivant’s Companion: Or How to Mix Drinks (1887). There are various other stories that are linked with the Martinez/Martini history and who created it – but no one can be sure which is true and you’ll find passionate supporters backing their claim to being the real deal. For example, many favour the theory that New York judiciary member Randolph Martine gave the drink its name. The theory lacks solid evidence, however many early listings of the Martini cocktail were found under the name ‘Martine’, as in Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual and in the meeting agenda of the International Association of Bartenders conference in 1893, Chicago.

Others point to the Martini brand of vermouth available in New York since 1867 that is said to have influenced the name. One of the best recourses for further reading is Imbibe by David Wondrich, which includes a 6-page appendix dedicated to his extensive research and conclusions on all 4 of the above popular theories.

It’s hard to believe that there was a single “hey presto” moment however. History seldom makes it so easy so while we doubt it was one bartender at a specific bar – it’s our belief that the Martini evolved from the Martinez.

The transformation is an intriguing one too and worthy of some attention for those looking for inspiration to create their own twists on the classic serve. To begin with it was a different creature entirely: with 1:2 or even 1:1 parts gin and sweet (not dry) vermouth, as well as the addition of simple syrup or bitters. Clearly it was a much sweeter, less bracing beverage and ingredients like orange bitters remained a common ingredient until the 1940s. By the turn of the century however the ratio had started to lean more heavily towards the gin until it reached a point where gin was barely caressed with a touch of vermouth in what has become known as the Naked Martini.

If we fast-forward through decades of cocktail creativity, Prohibition, innovative bartenders, Hollywood and cunning marketing campaigns by Vermouth companies all the way to 2010, while the basic ingredients are commonly accepted, the perfect recipe for the Martini is still open to fierce debate. To quote Jason Wilson (author of Boozehound) “It is certainly more of a broad concept than a specific recipe”…

Variations & Twists

All classic Martini recipes include vermouth as an ingredient of the cocktail. The lesser the amount of vermouth, the drier the Martini is considered to be. For twists on the classic Martini please see our other posts on a few popular variations – MARTINI TWISTS.

Shaken vs Stirred – Which one is correct?

Whether to shake it or stir it has been a contentious issue for bartenders across the years, arguably only really becoming a mainstream argument since Ian Fleming’s Bond started ordering his. Shaking the drink increases the rate at which the drink reduces in temperature (compared to stirring). Because you can’t see how much dilution is going on until you stop shaking combined with the increased speed at which this is happening, usually results in slightly more dilution compared to stirring (which takes longer and is more controlled). Obviously, this depends on the quality of the barkeep. The fact that the shaking motion introduces air bubbles into the drink, a shaken Martini can taste lighter, colder and sometimes even has a slight opaqueness to it.

As noted by Tristan Stephenson in his book The Curious Bartender, his experiments show that shaking a drink for more than 20 seconds will have very little further effect on temperature or dilution. This being, because as the cocktail approaches its freezing point its temperature plateaus. It is then said at this point, the level of dilution will also plateau, since the ice is only required to stabilise the temperature of the drink, not chill it.

Furthermore he explains that a strong drink can be chilled to -3 degrees Celsius in under 10 seconds by shaking it with cubed ice, but to achieve the same result by stirring with cubed ice will take over 30 seconds. This is because in essence a stir is a very slow shake, simply explained. This is demonstrated in his graph, left. He state that we can be forgiven for assuming that a stirred drink has more dilution because it takes longer, but the physics are conclusive whether the drink is shaken or stirred (for long enough) – it will reach almost exactly the same temperature and dilution.

Stirring the drink, on the other hand, is a more gentle technique used to delicately combine the ingredients with a perfect amount of dilution. It’s self explanatory as a technique and whichever your preference – you can create the stunning results using the two different techniques.

For many, it has always been a steadfast rule that you stir clear drinks, shake drinks containing fruit juice, egg or cream but these rules are not eternal, only to survive as long as future generations continue to adopt them.

Many of these said rules originate from highly respected tomes and pioneers within the industry. It may be surprising to hear that one such influencer called Harry Craddock in fact shook his Martinis. The crucial difference between another well-known influencer Harry Johnson’s first two Martini recipes – the Marguerite and the Bradford a la Martini is that one was stirred and the other was shaken. David Embury wrote on the topic too, in his book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, titled “To Stir or To Shake”. He explains that elementary fact we all already know – shaking gets a drink colder faster, but may result in a little cloudiness, especially if vermouth or wine is included.

There are other techniques on how to mix a Martini such as throwing, batching in bottles, ageing in barrels etc… with hundreds of Martini variations made by thousands of bartenders and equating a lot of variables to discuss! Furthermore, it is why the Martini is so difficult to make perfectly as people will have individual preferences for how they like it best served.

Finally, there’s the garnish. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this final touch as this can make or break the drink. In different versions of the cocktail, different garnishes have been used including olives, cherries, lemon slices or lemon peels. It is still a tough choice to make and our advice would be to use a garnish that matches the character of the gin.

Making Martini cocktails in the comfort of your kitchen? If you are making at home, get the following things right and you’re in for a tasty cocktail:

Good, cold ice and lots of it. If you have wet and slightly warm ice, you’ll over-dilute and under chill your drink. Lots of ice forces the drink to chill faster – so pack it in the mixing jar / shaker to ensure sufficient chill with just enough dilution. If you skimp on ice, you get a watery limp attempt at a cocktail.

Start off by stirring your Martinis before giving shaking a go, once you know how you like it. It’s easier to replicate and achieve consistency when stirring as you can see what is going on. It’s not a question of what is better or worse, that is up to personal taste. Once you know what recipe you like, try other techniques and keep tinkering!

Personal taste, choice of gin, vermouth and garnish allows for so much variety even if the ratios are set. Don’t be afraid to experiment in order to obtain a kind of gin Martini that best suits your taste buds. Not forgetting that each gin will produce a totally individual taste so tinker about with various libations and alternative garnishes combos to find which suits you best.

Lastly, always try to make sure the glass is chilled. Ideally, it’ll come straight from the freezer (pouring a perfectly mixed Martini into a warm glass will spoil everything). The final essential: your ingredients should be of high-quality. Since the drink is so simple, you’ll taste a lower quality ingredient instantly.

How to Drink It:

REMEMBER – The lesser the amount of vermouth, the drier the Martini is considered to be. If you like ice cold gin straight up go Bone Dry. If you like both Sweet and Dry Vermouth – go for a Perfect Martini. We’ve written a few twists on the classic Martini in a separate article – MARTINI TWISTS.

When to drink it you ask? Usually, when your Aston Martin has just been chopped to bits and you’ve had to fight your way through a cohort of highly trained killers, only to end up in a five star establishment where the supermodel bombshell of the day entices you to a game of strip poker. Or, for those who don’t have a double 0 licence…when you’ve had a long day and need something to really take the edge off, preferably after feeding the cat. Dryer Martinis are more bracing, wetter slightly more relaxing and more contemplative. Up to you!