Welcome, RTD Cocktail Club Members, to our third installment! Twice a month we will be featuring a classic cocktail, sharing the story behind it, and bottling it along with three interesting variations for you to try and enjoy at home. This week, we take a look at the Martini.
History
Aside from the original, the martini is a preferential debate. With the martini, in true American fashion, opinions come out. This may be why I like this cocktail so much, or really why anyone would. While I agree with cocktail enthusiasts about certain rules to a classic martini, I also know that the martini is a peoples’ drink - some really do want it with vodka and shaken. When compared to the original, it may be up for debate whether or not this is actually a martini (read: a double shot of vodka served straight up) it is still a look into the general feel of different eras. A lot of our history is reflected in the many transformations the martini has made since the 1800’s.
Where it all began, per usual, is drunk history with a few probable stories that don’t fully line up. There were seemingly lots of black out moments filled with personal versions of a similar story- you know how it is. However, there is an original and we will start there.
In the 1880’s the word ‘dry’ started popping up all over (remember I’m talking about the USA. These ingredients were already available in Europe, since that’s where they were from). We were finally able to access better quality gins that weren’t filled with sugars to hide their nastiness (welcome Plymouth and London dry) and we were seeing dry vermouths and dry wines popping up as the newest “thing”. These new products reinforced the class divide - money and social status meant power, which meant fine dining and access to fine imports, which led to the belief of the more refined palate. While it’s true “dry” products resulted in people consuming less processed sugar, this was more of a social access shift that allowed for the upper class to separate their taste from the working class backbone of the communities, most of whom were still consuming large amounts of residual sugar, having access mainly to sweeter and cheaper products. Remember, sugar was an affordable commodity added to cover for the lack of quality (think bathtub gin during prohibition).
So let’s start with “Professor” Jerry Thomas in San Francisco, the usual suspect. This would mean that I believe the martinez cocktail was the precursor to the martini instead of the other also viable options. Now, Jerry gets most of the cocktail credit and I’m really not sold on this one. Other than potentially making a Martinez (but there was already one in print in NYC 4 years before this recipe mind you) for a man headed back to Martinez there is no sound evidence that he was a Martini Pioneer. I don’t count a Beefeater Gin advertisement in the 1960’s as proof that it was Jerry. It seems like he got credit posthumously because of who he is versus because he actually invented the martini even though I’m sure he made a lot of very delicious ones in his day.
Let’s just jump to my favorite possibility. Honestly, it might be because of the name but this theory seems more sound than a gin advertisement - The “Tough Club” Theory as David Wondrich calls it (a prominent cocktail historian of our day). Instead of crediting the Martinez as the precursor, this theory gives credit to the Turf Club Cocktail. In similar fashion to the Martinez, the Turf Club was a bar spoon sweeter than what was to become the dry martini. The Turf Club looks a lot like the ever popular Manhattan cocktail with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters.
From here, bartenders across the country switched out the liqueurs and sweet vermouth for French vermouth (known today as dry vermouth) with a few dashes of orange bitters. They would use olives and lemon and orange zest as a garnish. This is how the dirty martini and the gibson martini soon followed on the dry martini’s trail. By 1900, the martini was a well-recognized cocktail around higher-brow establishments in the United States. By 1906, we see the cocktail forever defined and in print in multiple publications.
Oh! What Do I Think?!
I think the Martini is very truly American. This is what I think of as a majority cocktail: as the general palate shifts, so does what we know as the martini - hence why there are such heated debates about which is the right way to drink it. You can hate a variation but it still withstands the test of time - the dirty, the appletini, the traditional, the vodka variation all are still here. But you know what? It's what the people want.
INGREDIENTS & EXTRAS
FLAVOR GLOSSARY:
Bison Grass (Hierochloe odorata) - Also called sweet grass. It is most popularly known in sage stick incense bundles at your local crystal store or from the strand left in the Polish vodka Zubrowka that harvests limited amounts of the wild grass that endangered bison herds still find their way to.
French Vermouth - Just refers to dry vermouth in old timey language. Other countries including Spain and Italy also make dry vermouth but the classic recipes call for the French variation.
Manzanilla Sherry - Manzanilla is a fino sherry from Sanlucar de Barrameda in Xerez, Spain. Manzanilla means chamomile in Spanish and this sherry does tend to have chamomile flowers on the nose and a saltiness in the back.
FAT WASH - A method used in cocktail creation and liquor production where oil (think olive, coconut) is added to the alcohol to infuse and then strained out. Oil will solidify at certain and predictable temperatures making the filtering process easy.
GLASSWARE - The coupe is supposedly modeled after the French Queen Marie Antoinette’s left breast. In true cocktail history fashion there are holes in this story, but let's be real, that’s a pretty fun story. What we know as the martini glass followed the coupe when it debuted in 1925 at the Paris Exhibition as a new art deco variation of the stemmed glass for modern drinking times.
Recipes
CLASSIC:
The OG
1.5 oz Bimini Overproof
1.5 oz House Dry Vermouth Blend
3 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir 15-30 seconds until chilled and diluted by 20%. Strain into a chilled glass. Garnish and serve.
*Garnish: express a lemon peel over the drink and discard. Finish with a skewered Castelvetrano olive.
VARIATIONS:
Bimini Classic
1.5 oz Bimini Gin
1.5 Comoz Blanc Vermouth
2 Drops Bison Grass Tincture
Lemon zest expressed over the top and placed on rim of glass
*Follow OG recipe for build*
Swinging 60’s
2 oz Coconut gin
1.25 oz Charred Pineapple Honey Syrup
.5 oz House Dry Vermouth Blend
.5 Fresh Lime Juice
*Shaken!*
You Filthy Martini
2 oz Bimini BR1 (olive oil fat washed)
.5 oz Aurora Manzanilla Sherry
.75 oz Castelvetrano Brine
Skewered Castelvetrano olive for garnish
*See video for the ‘brine being a juice debate’ and whether or not you want to shake or stir this cocktail.
How to Make It
First things first, mis en place - get your tools together. Gather a jigger, a mixing glass, spoon, strainer, ice scoop, and the serving glass. Now make sure to have Bimini Gin, French Dry Vermouth, and Regan’s Orange Bitters as well as your garnish.
Next, I will fill my serving glass with ice and leave it there to chill while I craft my cocktail.
Add all liquid ingredients to empty mixing glass.
Add ice to mixing glass- fill to 1.5” from the rim of the mixing glass with ice.
Stir the cocktail with mixing spoon for 15 - 30 seconds until chilled and diluted.
Place strainer over the mixing glass.
Empty ice from chilling serving glass.
Strain cocktail from mixing glass into serving glass.
Drop a castelvetrano olive into the glass and express a lemon peel over the top of the cocktail and discard.
Imbibe! Don’t let it get warm!
FAQ and LINGO
What does served straight up mean?
This is when a cocktail is chilled (stirred or shaken with ice) and served in a chilled glass without ice.
But I thought you could make a martini with vodka and no (or a “rinse” of) vermouth?
Technically that's just a double shot of vodka served straight up with a garnish. While it technically isn’t a 1920’s martini it is still a peoples’ choice cocktail that many people refer to as a vodka martini.
PRO TIPS:
Throw your glassware in the freezer before serving for an extra refreshing experience.
Always keep your vermouth refrigerated after it is opened!
TOOLS AND TOOL SUBSTITUTIONS:
Mixing glass - Yarai Crystal Mixing Glass
Pint glass, wide mouth ball jar, large half of mixing tin, your largest coffee cup
Spoon- Cocktail Spoon (they have longer shafts which is better, I swear)
Gary Regan used his finger, a chopstick, a kebab skewer - just something skinny to spin the ice
Cocktail Jigger
Coffee scoop, shot glass, measuring cups or spoons (1 tablespoon equals 1/2oz, 1/4 cup equals 2oz)
Ice scoop or Ice tongs
Measuring cup, serving spoon, or whatever you use to scoop your dog’s food with
Hawthorne or Julep Strainer
Wide slotted spoon, tea strainer, or nest a smaller glass into your mixing glass
