Shaking gin is a poor substitute for not having gin at the right temperature (cold enough). It is emergency CPR to resuscitate a dead martini. Much of the flavour of gin is the result of oxygen content (dissolved oxygen in the gin). Keeping it in the freezer does this naturally. Shaking with ice also does it, however there is also a "metallic" aftertaste sometimes, so shaking does alter other flavours and isn't the preferred method. At least this has been my life experience, though I've never done a survey about it. The King Cole Room does count as a bastion of martini lore in NYC, even if they didn't invent it.

Putting my satire aside for a while, the above is actually correct. I have always thought the "metallic" is due to the ice being mere tap water.

M8

Yes, please do! ^

And I'll post some hangover cures. :) :D (Which I will probably need for myself, as well....)

You know, this might sound demented, but what if you made your ice cubes from filtered water with a soupçonné of vermouth? What if you did a similar thing with a vodka martini with Lillet?

Even better, what if we organized a Martini-Do where we could do taste-tests of several gin OR vodka brands, and some blind taste-tests?

I think that would be a LOT of fun!

We could have the gin-drinkers on one side and the vodka people on the other... but wait, what about those of us who are actually willing to do both (a la Fleming) and COMBINE the two? Would we have to be relegated to some bi-alcoholic alcove???? ;) :D

And what about the abominations mixed with sweet liqueurs and fruit juices that masquerade as -tini's ??? (Someone once said they were sugary imposters squatting in a martini glass, I believe....) Would we even let the folks who drink THOSE in the door????

:D

You don't have a choice in Tucson.

Hahaha! :p

Well, I don't actually live here, but I figured I was here for just long enough to put it in my profile. But I actually like the place, and have learned a few things about tequila and cacti.

So, maybe I should just stick to talking about margaritas? ;) :D

Voda in SF.

Tee-hee :D Those were the days, drinking a cheap margarita under the wings of one of those dead airplanes.

M8

yes, the boneyard, there is something slightly erotic about it, I love planes new AND old.... ;) :)

No, no, no... you folks have to tell us a little bit about WHY that was the best martini you've had! Not to mention, you have to say something about what kind of martini you had! ;) :)

ILuvParis's killer martinis at his place in Chicago. They were so good, that no one would leave. :)

TUS has some great scenery, particularly in the mountains. Is there more to learning about tequila and cacti than not to drink the worm and not to sleep in the cacti?

The classic martini has always intrigued me as a bar drink as it is better made at home. As this discussion has shown, it is trivially easy to make provided that you control the preparation (stock the right kind of gin, keep it and the glasses at the right temperature, have the right kind of toothpicks for the olives). All of which is easier to do at home than for most bars to manage.

Time for my "martini". Pure Tanqueray Ten straight from the freezer, in a chilled Riedel riesling glass (unadulterated by vermouth or olives or lemon peel, though I have mixed feelings about the latter).

Ok. Voda in San Francisco. Ultimat Martini (vodka). I'm not a big martini fan, but this was smoooooooth. It was the start of a great night.

Last time I was there was in 1979. I got dumped off of a MAC flight and wound up hitchhiking to Los Angeles with a sailor that got booted from the same flight. Back then one could walk freely about the old planes. I wonder if that's still true, or if current security concerns have changed things. It was cool looking at the old abandoned planes.

M8

best - cranberry martini's at the aut bar in ann arbor, mi... . Not sure what made them so tasty, but I ended up wicked hung over the next day from slamming them down. :)

near best - white chocolate martini at n9ne in Chicago. sooooo much better than a normal chocolate martini (which I actually find quite nasty).

if this thread is about real (non-flavored) martinis only, then sorry, I can't help you. I stopped drinking those the day I discovered that you could make flavored ones!

I think I'll just add a little after thought to this thread.

2 explorers are preparing a trip to some remote region of the world, and in addition to their usual supplies one packs a large bottle of vodka, and a bottle of vermouth. "You cant carry all that!" His shocked friend exclaims. "this is the most important part" he replies "this is our survival and rescue pack!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" asks his now totally confused friend.

"well its like this, if we ever get lost or stranded, we mix up a martini, and its absolutely guarenteed that some nosey f***er will turn up to tell us how we made it wrong, then we're rescued!"


Put that in your pipe and smoke it! :p

Actually, a martini does not contain vermouth (just a vague thought that maybe a vermouth bottle was somewhere in the vicinity of the Martini at some point in time) :D

I'm back to the true gin martini - vodka martinis are good, but not the original one - though I'm fine if you call it a 'vodka martini'. 'Martini' by itself implies gin.

Bombay Sapphire - or, when you want something different, Hendrick's garnished w/ a cucumber slice.

I had to translate 'dirty martini' for a bartender at the Westin in Madrid (not for me, for someone else there) - definitely some eyebrow raising .

Alec

--------------

Tom Lehrer's Martini was not quite as dry as I'd drink it:

"Hearts full of youth,
Hearts full of truth,
Six parts gin to one part vermouth."

From College Days

I prefer Bombay Sapphire.

Best Martini
 

As part of my signature implies...I am always in search of the best martini (wherever in the world they may be!). I have had my share of great martinis in my travels and of course at home. I am definitely a vodka martini girl (prefer Belvedere or Grey Goose). I would have to say my favourite is a cosmopolitan.

The best ones I have had thus far:

The Red Coconut (Orlando, FL)
The Kaiser Grille (Palm Springs, CA) very good peach martini there
Martini Ranch (San Diego, CA)
Dirty Martini (London)
Area (West Hollywood, CA)
Pegu Club (NYC)
Russian Vodka Room (NYC)
Eat My Martini (Toronto)
Bound Bar (Paris, France)
Le Fumoir (Paris, France)


Where are some of the places you have had the best martini? It can be anything from a funky flavoured ultra hip martini to the traditional James Bond shaken, not stirred variety.

Yes, as i posted on the other thread when I noticed your signature, the bar at the Dukes Hotel in London. Went there with a couple other Flyertalkers at a mini London Do a few years ago. One of them said they had the best martinis in the world. I was skeptical to say the least but it was worth a try. He may be right. They have a martini table that they bring to your table to make the martini. It has all the parts present. They usually make them with either Boodles (I think that was it) or if you want a bit of a special one, Plymouth Gin. They peel a bit of lemon zest and rub it around the rim of the cold glass for the final touch. They will make vodka ones, but they will raise their eyebrows just a bit when they do.

I just now saw your post in the thread in the amex forum. Thanks so much for the suggestion! :D

I am not opposed to gin martinis, I just prefer vodka. I will definitely go there on my next trip to London this year. I think a FT Martini Do would be a fun idea sometime! :cool:

Interesting website:

http://www.rdwarf.com/users/mink/martinifaq.html#what

A month ago I got together with a couple of other FTers at G Lounge in NYC. I remember thinking everything was perfect at that moment. A Grey Goose Martini with tiny little ice crystals, and two new friends!

A Vote for "The Vault Martini Bar" in Portland, OR
 

Had a wonderful Kettle One Vodka Martini with Stuffed Blue Cheese olives here!

http://www.vault-martini.com/

SQ F (okay, J!) on a non-busy flight into SIN, from somewhere with a faintly colonial history... with at least 2hrs before descent, enjoying the drink while someone is at the ready to serve up another. :p


(Re-booting this thread so that today's thread can be merged into this one!)

PS. Sydney's Shangri La bar, Blu Horizon, makes some good cocktails, especially if you like vodka. Worth a try - and the best view for anyone here for a quick visit - unless you bridge climb. :D

Most bars at expensive hotels in Japan make excellent martinis. And you never have to tell them to stay the hell away from the vodka;)

Martini-no vermouth?
 

I have ordered (gin) martinis at a number of bars-including Cruise Bar suppposedly Denver's top bar per Denver Magazine-each time I had to ask for some vermouth.
What is going on and since when has this been happening?
After all a martini by definition is gin+vermouth

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

shaken or stirred.....?

So if they didn't give you vermouth what did they put into the Martini or did they give you plain Gin :confused: .

There is a wide variety of opinions on the proper amount of vermouth to put in a martini. I believe the original ratio of gin to vermouth was something approaching 1:1, but the trend in recent years has been towards smaller amounts of vermouth, with some people (myself included) preferring a drink that might better be described as "cold gin in a glass". With an olive.

I've seen more than one bartender rinse the inside of a martini glass with vermouth, dump it out, then shake the gin with ice and pour it into the glass. I tend to favor this technique.

It's probably best to give the bartender some direction as to the amount of vermouth you want, since there seems to be no real standard.

In fact, I was informed by one bartender that this is a martini with a vermouth splash

"So if they didn't give you vermouth what did they put into the Martini or did they give you plain Gin . "



plain gin (shaken) with a twist

Many bartenders today think they are show business personalities and not simple alcoholic drink providers. Many mix a drink so fast they have no idea of the normal ingredient proportions, the amount of actual alcohol poured (eg 90% of the time it is light) and sometimes the ingredients. I hate those cheating speed merchants and remember the service at tip time.

MisterNice

It's better than places where all drinks are measured before being served. You rarely get less than "one drink" when things aren't measured.

Didn’t Winston Churchill once say that the perfect martini was drinking cold gin while looking at a bottle of vermouth?

Hawkeye Pierce said something similar.

what you described is the extra dry martini. also my choice

My Father considers himself a martini expert and he always orders his "extraORDINARIALLY dry" (with that emphasis) and swears by them. I'll stick to my scotch.

With apologies to the Vodkatians whose choice of spirits has prevailed upon world-wide practice to include vodka-based blends as "Martinis"....

By its very name, a Martini requires some Vermouth (declining in proportion over the decades, and back in the 50s, the "Gibson" at 5/1 was considered "Very Dry"). Traditional purists might even demand that the cocktail live up to its name, and only use "Martini & Rossi" Vermouth, but flavor issues saw great rise in the popularity of "Noilly Pratt", French Vermouth, or even "Lillet", which is not really a Vermouth at all.

When it first became popular, traditionally trained barmen (There were no females behind bars!) turned up their collective noses at the use of Tanqueray in a Martini, to heavily floral and fruity for a "real" drink. In NYC's better bars, Gordon's gin was the over-whelming barmans' pour, just as "White Label" (Dewar's) was the Scotch of common consumption of political and financial classes.

The best I recall over many decades....My world traveler uncle who kept the gin and the stemmed glassware in the freezer, and peeled the zest (outer skin, minimal bitter white pith) from lemons and preserved the strips in a jar of Vermouth. Whip out bottle, glasses and pour, then drop a "marinated" strip of lemon peel atop the gin, eliminating the hazards of mixology and dilution by melting ice.

I was an 'extra dry' guy for awhile. You may not believe this, but from time to time, I'd end up with a martini that reeked of vermouth. Then, I realized that maybe some dim-wit bartenders think 'extra dry' means 'more dry vermouth please.' This problem seems more acute outside the U.S., since the vermouth bottle tends to have the word DRY in big letters on the bottle.

So, I'm sitting in my favorite martini bar in Atlanta a few weeks ago and hear someone next to me order a martini with 'no vermouth.' I immediately adopted that strategy and have been very happy lately. I happen to think that many bartenders either don't wash out shakers well enough or shake all martinis in the same shaker. The residual vermouth in the shaker from the last guy's dry is plenty for me. And, if I end up with a heaping glass of gin and ice shards? Well, all the better.

As to OP's question, I think this trend may go hand in hand with the rise in popularity of the 'dirty' martini (IMO, because of the name rather than the taste). Plenty of times, I have to wave a barkeep off the olive juice even when I didn't ask for it 'dirty.'

Finally, since we're talking martinis, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my main ingredient of choice is Hendricks Gin. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend.

Back when I used to drink martinis, I was of the opinion that if they poured the gin (no label loyalty here) while waving the stoppered bottle of vermouth above it, that was fine.

I liked the flavor of dirty martinis, until a friend pointed out that the bartender was probably using the brine in the garnish tray. Which was also okay, until we watched a sweaty-fingered patron wander over to the bar and grub out some olives from the garnish tray with his hands. No more of that for me.