The Martini Subculture
By Chantal Saville
There is a whole world of people out there who live, breathe and drink martinis. Gin, a dash of vermouth and a lemon peel or olive. No more and no less. They are almost fanatical about it, to the point of getting right snippy if you dare to call one of those ‘other’ cocktails a martini.
A standard martini is a five to one ratio – five of gin, one of dry vermouth. A ‘dry martini’ uses even less vermouth. The less vermouth, the ‘drier’ the martini. People who are truly into the dry martini will ‘rinse’ the glass in vermouth, but ultimately pour it out before adding the gin. “Connoisseurs boast of… passing the vermouth cap above the glass, shining a light through the vermouth bottle onto the glass, momentarily passing the finished drink near a closed vermouth bottle, or jokingly whispering "vermouth" over the glass. It's been said that a "Churchill Martini" contains no vermouth, just British gin. The legend holds that Churchill would get as close to the vermouth bottle as to "look at it from across the room". This would make it very dry or a so called Churchill Martini.”[*] A ‘dirty martini’ has a little olive juice included with the olive, which is said to lessen the intensity of the alcohol. A lemon peel is another ‘acceptable’ garnish. In fact, the best way is to peel the lemon right over the glass. The peeling action releases some of the lemon oil onto the top of the drink. I myself prefer lime, but that’s a whole other story.
If there was ever a more schizophrenic drink, it is the martini. If you order a martini at a bar, you should receive a standard gin martini. Where it gets complicated is when people order a martini but in fact they are expecting something other than a gin martini. Because of course, the modern bartender can read minds! Should it be ‘shaken not stirred’? This ubiquitous sentence is from James Bond, who always orders his martinis this way in the movies. However, true martini followers have several bones to pick with Bond. First, he asks for vodka, which as we have explored above, is not what a martini is traditionally made with. More importantly, the use of a shaker causes the ice to chip into the drink, thereby diluting it. The proper way to mix a martini involves stirring it carefully with a long spoon. There are also those who say that shaking it will ‘bruise’ the gin. Ultimately, you can tell a shaken martini because it is cloudier than a stirred one, since the shaking adds air to the mixture. Furthermore, a true martini drinker will keep all his ‘tools’ in the freezer: gin, vermouth, glasses, mixing glass.
If you enjoy a good dry martini, you are in good company: Churchill, Truman Capote, J. Robert Oppenheimer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Cary Grant, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt all partook in martinis, some with better results than others![†] During Prohibition, martinis were the drink of choice because gin was easy to produce – whiskey was too time consuming to make in the quantities needed by speakeasies. Today, there are thousands of variations on the martini that have been developed: Vodkatini, Kangaroo, Cosmopolitain, Appletini… I can’t even begin to list them. Purists, however, would disagree. They would say there is only one martini – stirred, not shaken.
© 2007 Chantal Saville
[*] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martini_(cocktail)
[†] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martini_(cocktail)
By Chantal Saville
There is a whole world of people out there who live, breathe and drink martinis. Gin, a dash of vermouth and a lemon peel or olive. No more and no less. They are almost fanatical about it, to the point of getting right snippy if you dare to call one of those ‘other’ cocktails a martini.
A standard martini is a five to one ratio – five of gin, one of dry vermouth. A ‘dry martini’ uses even less vermouth. The less vermouth, the ‘drier’ the martini. People who are truly into the dry martini will ‘rinse’ the glass in vermouth, but ultimately pour it out before adding the gin. “Connoisseurs boast of… passing the vermouth cap above the glass, shining a light through the vermouth bottle onto the glass, momentarily passing the finished drink near a closed vermouth bottle, or jokingly whispering "vermouth" over the glass. It's been said that a "Churchill Martini" contains no vermouth, just British gin. The legend holds that Churchill would get as close to the vermouth bottle as to "look at it from across the room". This would make it very dry or a so called Churchill Martini.”[*] A ‘dirty martini’ has a little olive juice included with the olive, which is said to lessen the intensity of the alcohol. A lemon peel is another ‘acceptable’ garnish. In fact, the best way is to peel the lemon right over the glass. The peeling action releases some of the lemon oil onto the top of the drink. I myself prefer lime, but that’s a whole other story.
If there was ever a more schizophrenic drink, it is the martini. If you order a martini at a bar, you should receive a standard gin martini. Where it gets complicated is when people order a martini but in fact they are expecting something other than a gin martini. Because of course, the modern bartender can read minds! Should it be ‘shaken not stirred’? This ubiquitous sentence is from James Bond, who always orders his martinis this way in the movies. However, true martini followers have several bones to pick with Bond. First, he asks for vodka, which as we have explored above, is not what a martini is traditionally made with. More importantly, the use of a shaker causes the ice to chip into the drink, thereby diluting it. The proper way to mix a martini involves stirring it carefully with a long spoon. There are also those who say that shaking it will ‘bruise’ the gin. Ultimately, you can tell a shaken martini because it is cloudier than a stirred one, since the shaking adds air to the mixture. Furthermore, a true martini drinker will keep all his ‘tools’ in the freezer: gin, vermouth, glasses, mixing glass.
If you enjoy a good dry martini, you are in good company: Churchill, Truman Capote, J. Robert Oppenheimer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Cary Grant, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt all partook in martinis, some with better results than others![†] During Prohibition, martinis were the drink of choice because gin was easy to produce – whiskey was too time consuming to make in the quantities needed by speakeasies. Today, there are thousands of variations on the martini that have been developed: Vodkatini, Kangaroo, Cosmopolitain, Appletini… I can’t even begin to list them. Purists, however, would disagree. They would say there is only one martini – stirred, not shaken.
© 2007 Chantal Saville
[*] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martini_(cocktail)
[†] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martini_(cocktail)
No comments:
Post a Comment