Dry Martini Cocktail
What exactly is a Dry Martini, and why does this cocktail cause so much confusion? Let's clear that up, then make a Martini from the recipe. It's so simple, it could hardly be easier …
Ingredients
-
90 ml
Gin
-
15 ml
Dry white vermouth
-
to garnish
Lemon zest or olive
Steps to make the drink
- Fill a Martini glass with plenty of ice to chill it, so the glass doesn't immediately warm your drink.
- Pour the gin and vermouth into a mixing glass and add plenty of ice.
- Stir the cocktail for about 30 turns to get it properly cold without diluting it too much.
- Empty the chilling ice from the glass.
- Pour the cocktail into the chilled glass.
- Squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the cocktail so its essential oils coat the surface.
- Alternatively, garnish with an olive.
Martini: cocktail or ingredient?
Much of the confusion comes from Martini being a drinks brand as well as a name that appears in several cocktails.
Martini, the vermouth and aperitif
Browse the shelves in a shop and you'll find plenty of bottles with Martini on the label: Martini Rosso, Martini Extra Dry, Martini Bianco … Each contains a wine-based drink, a vermouth. Alcohol and various herbs, spices and essences are added to the wine. The alcohol helps it keep longer and carries some of the alcohol-soluble aromas more effectively.
Because it's essentially a strong herbal wine, you shouldn't leave vermouth open for too long, especially somewhere warm. Just as wine can turn to vinegar and spoil, vermouth can do the same, only more slowly. In the fridge, though, you can get 4–6 weeks out of it. Better still is a small wine vacuum pump (affiliate link to the product on Amazon), which removes the oxygen and air from the bottle.
Martini Extra Dry, for example, is a vermouth developed specifically for the Dry Martini cocktail.
Dry Martini, the cocktail
Now to the main event: the cocktail. You'll find different versions of the recipe. Depending on taste, variations online use 6, 4 or 5 parts gin to 1 part vermouth.
My tip for the right drink
How and when you first had a Dry Martini can be quite a story. I remember two particularly special drinks. One was my first Dry Martini at Bar Le Lion in Hamburg, where it's served so bone-dry and beautifully chilled that it's a joy. The first half is served in the glass; the second waits in a small bottle nestled in ice. The ice stays outside the rest of the drink, so it doesn't dilute it.
The second incredibly good Martini was one I made myself with Aviation American Gin and a dash of lemon, plus Ferdinand’s Dry Wermut. Brilliant.