My Perfect Martini

Published on September 22, 2006 By Xythe In Life Journals

Mixing coctails is like being the bar-b-que dude; the festivities and everybodies taste buds are depending on you. Both artforms require a LOT of practice before you are good enough to take on a party....the practice is what I like to focus on...a cocktail can never be to perfect.

I've been practicing martinis tonight, and heres how I'm doing them:

Prep:
A tumbler half full of one inch ice cubes, (which I always keep in my freezer)
5oz. decent gin (go with no less than Tanqueray)
1 tsp dry vermouth (I use the Gallo)
green olives (as many as you like)

Okay. Gin is a botanically infused alcohol. It's full flavored, but tough. When I say tough, whiskey drinkers will know what I mean.

Anyway, we want to round off the hashness and accentuate the botanical flavors of the gin to personal taste. We have a few tools at hand to weave our alchemy on the gin: ice, olives, and the vermouth.

Ice is going to provide 2 componants. Water to dilute down, 2) chill to bring down the temperature of our drink.
Dry vermouth is made of white wine infused with herbs and spices and complements those same characteristics in the gin.
Olives finish off our martini with a splash of color and complimenting the rest of the mixture overall character. They also serve as a great snack!!

From the freezer, fill a tumbler about 1/2-way with 1 inch ice cubes, then add the 5oz gin and the 1 tsp dry vermouth.
Stir or shake this mixture until condensation formes on the tumbler. (I stir until the mixture gets no colder to touch)
Strain of into a stemmed glass, and drop in as many of the olives as you like.
Drink.
Repete (the second one is always better....because you make adjustments...of course)

What winds up happening when you mix the ingrediants with ice is 2-fold. First you are melting off about 1-1/2oz of water, diluting the gin by close to 20%; and secondly cooling the drink down to close to near freezing temperature, or around 35 degrees or so. THIS is what takes the edge, or the harshness off the gin. The vermouth adds a bit of sweetness and character to the gin. I always rub a sliver of lemmon and/or orange rind on the rim of my glass before tossing it into my well rounded gin martitni, enhanced with a hint of citrus.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I have tonight

Comments

cactoblasta

on Sep 22, 2006

Ice? Heresy!'

I like a little more vermouth - say half a shot or so to two shots of Bombay Sapphire. The olive is either Kalamata or nothing.

My personal absolute all-time favourite cocktail though is a variation on the humble Kamikaze. Make it in the usual way but add a little simple syrup which has had either a chilli or (if fresh is out of the question) some chilli flakes standing in it for a few hours (it'll need to be stirred every once in a while). That syrup should be chilled for preference.

There's nothing better than hitting the deck in flames after a few Kamikazes after another cold winter day.

Caracarn1

on Sep 22, 2006

I use Bombay Saphire and these spicy garlic stuffed olives.

Xythe

on Sep 22, 2006

simply a shot of bourbon with a little blackberry brandy floated on top.

Bourbon is my staple drink, and I have had this.

...(to encourage you to have a few more, see the beauty in that?)

Without a doubt!! ****Warning! Do NOT do this with 101 Wild Turkey****

MasonM

on Sep 22, 2006

I had a couple of very good grey goose vodka martinis last night. Yours sounds great but I prefer vodka to gin.

Xythe

on Sep 30, 2006

I decided to go with martinis again tonight.

I usually keep my shaker containing cubed ice in the freezer. Everytime I make a cocktail where I use this shaker, a reside of the coctail itself remaines in the bottom of the shaker when I return it to the freezer. About every month or so, I need to melt the "residue" out of the bottom of my shrinking shaker. After its melted; Its a cocktail of its own

For those of you all that are drinking martinis without ice: Now dont get me wrong, your allowed to drink the way you like. But you HAVE to have the Ice in the martini. Also, you can NOT keep your gin in the freezer.

Xythe

on Sep 30, 2006

I use Bombay Saphire and these spicy garlic stuffed olives.

I love these olivs as well! Sometimes I use the jalapeno stuffed olives and a couple of those pearl onions. The martini is more than a drink- its a meal!

Xythe

on Sep 30, 2006

I like a little more vermouth - say half a shot or so to two shots of Bombay Sapphire.

Cacto

I tried this the other night with frozen sapphire and no ice, a garlic stuffed olive and a couple of pearl onions.....MIGHTY tastey:)

cactoblasta

on Sep 30, 2006

It's the only way to drink it.

Xythe

on Oct 10, 2006

Ive started draining my olives and onions, and replacing their respective fluids with Sapphire. Much much tastier!

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