The approved technique is to open the vermouth bottle and let the fumes waft over the gin. Any more than that makes for an inferior martini. The alternative technique if having no frozen gin and having to use a shaker with ice is to rinse the shaker with vermouth, being careful to pour it all out prior to adding ice and the gin, then shake vigorously and pour into the martini glass from over your head (at least a 2 foot drop, to get enough oxygenation). As for the gin, I prefer Tanqueray Ten and if that is not available, Bombay Sapphire. Hate Gordons (but others love Gordons). Some of the dutch gins are also quite good, but also a lot different for true genevers.

A Matini is now, always was and ever shall be made with gin! The other drink remains clearly a "Vodka Martini", another kettle of fish, another flavor, another thrill.

The best Martini I ever had was a double in the cocktail lounge of the Warwick Hotel, New York City, the night of October 22, 1962, before departing "for the Front" (Key West, and those who remember the date will know why). The schedule of recreational physical activities following the Martini(s) in question also rank among the "Best" (at least until 8 bells of the Mid - that's 4AM, to catch the hop South).

Close to the best Martini....(but maybe a Gibson with the onions)

Unless you have access to honest to goodness Spanish Manzanilla Olives (unstuffed) and Meyer lemons,

At least a month before, find a recipe for Moroccan salt-preserved lemons, and prepare it with regular "store bought" lemons, adding a handful of cocktail onions to each jar of lemons.

Keep a liter of Beefeaters' in the deep freeze along with a rack of stemmed glasses.

Add a teaspoon of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth to a well-chilled Martini Glass, swirl and discard all but a few drops "filming" the interior. Add gin, about the consistency of Karo syrup.

Introduce a twist of Meyer lemon anda couple of little olives, or in lieu of same, add a twist of preserved lemon peel and a couple of onions.

Consume no more than 2 big'uns, preferably before rare red meat or enthusiastic sex. If you must combine the rare beef and sex, try the sex first, after the Matinis but before the beef.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A cautious enquiry from someone not that familiar with this part of American dining/drinking culture: Isn�t a martini or two before dinner a little bit strong on your taste buds to enjoy the nuances of the food and wine afterwards? Of course the same question could be pointed at the G&T slinging Brits...

Or is it just a steakhouse thing?

Yes, that is the intended purpose. Make dismal food seem to taste better (by not tasting at all). As the quality of cuisine improved in the US, the martini disappeared from the dining scene for the most part. Now it is making a comeback (though often as cocktails separate from dinner, or as desert). It generally isn't combined with food except in steakhouses with the 40 oz. steak and 12 inch cigar menu.

The best martini comes from my kitchen. Tanqueray Ten, vermouth (what are the rest of y'all doing with the stuff? Watering your plants? ), two olives.

Diminished taste is still well worth it for me. If I've had two by dinner time, I can't feel myself chew either and I don't care.

Try a martini made by Brad at the Bridge Bar in the Rennaissance Downtown Nashville. He's trained many a bartender but none make as good a martini as he.

Had a pretty good one earlier this week: Ciroc, a little dirty, blue cheese-stuffed olives at Bob's Steakhouse in the Omni Hotel in San Francisco.

My favorite is still a vodka martini (with your choice of vodka) with blue-cheese stuffed olives (you can see my preference) at Red Square at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The vodka is nice and cold, and the top of the bar is even made of ice!

For non-traditionalists, you can find all sorts of great stuff put in martinis nowadays -- I had one recently with anchovy-stuffed olives. Excellent!

By the way, this is off-topic, but I just discovered the "Bloody Mary Bar" at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris in Las Vegas. What a great innovation -- they bring you your choice of vodka, and then the do-it-yourself bar has a handful of tomato juices/bloody mary mixes, dozens of hot and worcestershire sauces, dry spices, all different types of veggies, etc. I would highly recommend it, and have never seen anything like it.

Hey, I'll double that........

Couldn't agree more!!

I must have the final say. A martini shall be made only with vodka. I have infinite and chidlish stamina for this, so just let me have the last word

M8

Maybe not the best, but certainly the most interesting. Sitting in Il Mulino in NYC with my wife. We were at the bar by the window waiting for a table. Just finished a Belvedere Martini (yes, the vodka kind) when a guy at the bar starts a conversation with us. He then asks us what we were drinking and I told him. He started to smile, and told me that I had answered the question perfectly and that he would buy me our next round of drinks as he OWNED Belvedere Vodka. He was there taking a good client out for dinner. Gave me his card, and we had a great conversation with he and his guests.

Not much longer afterwards, I read in Forbes that they (he and his son) had sold Belvedere for some ungodly sum of money. Cheers!

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely have to check this one out next time. ^

best martini...

martini mondays at my good friend's house...but, since that's a little off the beaten path...

OYG (Old Yellowstone Garage), Koshu Wine Bar and the bar at Spring Creek Resort - all in Jackson Hole, Wyoming...where, I believe, nobody had even heard of a martini until about 5 years ago.

worst martini...

Paris, France - sorry...everything else is wonderful, though.

st

From what authority do you speak? Martinis have been around here in the US regularly for as long as I remember. There's no "comeback" because it never went away. Let's see, I'm 49 yrs-old and I remember all manner of adults sipping on martinis when I was young, and have seen this throughout my aging.

A before dinner aperitif is as traditional in the US as it is in Europe. It has nothing to do with the "dismal food" as you point out above.

And for you "traditionalists" on the gin thing. Gin started being mixed in martinis in the 60's. Before that it was mostly potato vodka that was being used. That being said, however, I use vodka and gin, and in some cases will mix both in a single martini.

M8

Trained in the late 50s while in college as a barman, the best of part time jobs (and tips split with the cocktail waitresses), I will categorically disagree with your claim.

Every bartenders manual and recipe book from days gone by, the hoary, hairy past, will without hesitation call for gin in a Martini. By the late 50s, occasional customers might call for a Vodka Martini - but since only a handful of big city bars might even stock "potato vodka" (for under nortmal conditions, US importers would not have touched an Eastern European/Soviet product), and US and West European vodkas were all grain-based alky.

Vodka martinis leaped in popularity in the early 60s, as much to do with Ian Fleming as anyone (just as vodka itself became "respectable", after for years being only the emphasis in a Bloody Mary or Screwdriver, the only "popular" vodka based bar beverages.

Not to detract from your experience as a barman, but there are thousands of bartenders running around who are not learned on the subject of martini history.

Potato vodkas of old were oily (which is why 007 wanted it shaken and not stirred). The resurgence of the vodka you are referring to in the 60's was due to the refining of vodka switching over to grains instead of potatos, and not due to Fleming, or The Rat Pack.

Today the resurgence of potato vodkas is due to further improvements in the refining process, not because the Iron Curtain fell. Potato vodkas were always available as a poor man's drink in the 50's, right down there with rye, and way before that, being that vodka was always primarily refined from potatos. Now potato vodkas are considered trendy, and modern refining has eliminated the oiliness problem.

Sadly we now even have vodka refined from grapes, which is an abomination in my opinion.

As for your reference to Fleming, Casino Royale was written in 1953. This was Fleming's first Bond novel, and it reflects Fleming's drinking habits. Vodka was Bond's preference in his martini and it was potato vodka - in the early 50's not early 60's. There is an instant in the books where he blends his vodka with gin.

Cheers,

M8