How do you like your martinis?

[AaronWF]

Looks good minus the blue cheese!

Seriously... a bit o' cocktail with your olives?

[jeff]

9:1 ratio of Junipero gin to Bianco vermouth, shaken vigorously over ice.

Add 1 drop of Worcestershire sauce to glass and then shake most of it out, leaving only trace amounts in the glass.

Pour over 1 or 3 olives (must be an odd number.)

Enjoy!

[bigtoys]

Seriously... a bit o' cocktail with your olives?

gotta use the olives and cheese or they'll go bad. yeah, it's more an hors d'oeuvre than a cocktail. but it was tasty!! I'm definitely buying this blue cheese again.

[bigtoys]

9:1 ratio of Junipero gin to Bianco vermouth, shaken vigorously over ice.

Add 1 drop of Worcestershire sauce to glass and then shake most of it out, leaving only trace amounts in the glass.

Pour over 1 or 3 olives (must be an odd number.)

Enjoy!

[Trey Manthey]

My martini:

• Start by chilling the glasses with ice and water
  
• Fill a mixing glass with ice and pour Tanqueray down the side of the glass; don't let it bruise the ice
  
• Stir gently until the glass is cold enough for a towel to freeze to the condensation on the glass
  
• Discard ice in chilled glass, coat inside of glass with Noilly Pratt vermouth, discard extra
  
• Strain chilled gin into glasses
  
• Garnish with a lemon twist

[pepcycle]

Just started drinking my martini's OTR.

Preferably one large ice ball. (Golf ball sized)

I prepare the same as Up version and strain into chilled OTR glass with Olives.

I find the shorter, lighter OTR glass to the bulky, heavy bottomed style.

[Gillman]

I like gin, a little vermouth (but always some), rocks. Stuffed olive optional, never really liked lemon. If the gin is too pungent, I let it down a bit with vodka. That's it.

Gary

[bigtoys]

Dirty & Sloppy

stuffed some olives w/ St. Agur blue cheese from Whole Foods

Hendricks Gin (from the freezer), Dolin Dry Vermouth, some generic olive brine

I know, more like an appetizer than a cocktail

with ceviche from the local grocer

[BourbonJoe]

I like a Bombay Saphire martini, mixed 3 to 1 with dry vermouth, a splash of olive juice and three large olives. All on the rocks.

Joe :usflag:

[Rutherford]

I like to have a good, complex, balanced aroma with correspondingly good flavor.

To get this in a martini, I think the first step is to get a reasonable temperature. Stirring helps keep a martini from getting too diluted or too cold.

I'd rather have a bit more vermouth for its added aromatics -- somewhere in the 3-4:1 range works best for me. There is no better gin than Martin Miller's (at least that I've found... I've only had probably 20 gins), which has a beautiful floral bouquet and some more spicy, earthy tones in addition to its juniper. Plymouth is another good well-balanced floral gin but is not quite as good. Beefeater and Broker's are good choices for cleaner, more juniper-focused gin. Any vermouth that isn't lower-shelf works for me. Noilly Prat works well and is especially dry. Martini & Rossi is pretty good. Lillet technically doesn't call itself gin, but works quite well in vermouth's place.

A twist is my favorite garnish. Cocktail onions are decent and less work (though technically they make your drink a Gibson). I prefer no garnish to olives, and sometimes to an onion.

A dash of bitters can bring together the gin and vermouth quite well. Angostura or orange bitters (Regans is better than Fee Brothers, but Fee Brothers is qutie good) work the best. I don't think Fee Brothers or Peychaud's work particularly well in martinis. Bittercube Cherry Bark Vanilla bitters are delicious in almost anything.

A small amount of St. Germain can enhance the aromatics of a martini and, according to some, make it no longer a martini. Too much can oversweeten the drink.

[HP12]

I like my martini's "filthy dirty".

Sapphire Gin, vermouth and green olive juice...roughly 3:1:1+

Queen sized olives a must and stuffed with either blue cheese or anchovies (hard to believe no others mentioned this delicious variation).

Shaken not stirred and poured into a chilled martini glass. The shake is an important part of the martini making process. Providing good aeration with the resulting pour producing a light layer of ice crystals in the glass makes for a classic favorite.

Martinis are great when made correctly.

[Clavius]

I bought a bottle of this Luksusowa Potato Vodka for like $16.99 earlier today. It's highly rated... supposedly. I figured it might be pretty good but not nearly as good as maybe Rain or Chopin. I'm dead wrong. This is good, clean and smooth vodka. I'm sold on it.

For the record, the Martini I made with it was like this:

-3oz Luksusowa Vodka

-1/2oz M&R Dry Vermouth

-1/4oz Stirrings Dirty Martini mix (olive brine)

Shaken vigorously

Garnish was Mezzetta Jalapeno & Garlic Olives (which are amazing, btw)

[BoozeTraveler]

Filthy, dry and up. I prefer a vodka martini, though the right gin will make it sing.

[Happyhour24x7]

I had no idea there was so much love for the olive brine out there. I like olives, and have been known to stick a couple in a vodka rocks, but wash them first, please. And by no means let those things near my gin martinis!

[Clavius]

I had no idea there was so much love for the olive brine out there. I like olives, and have been known to stick a couple in a vodka rocks, but wash them first, please. And by no means let those things near my gin martinis!

I like a little of the brine in my martinis. But it is very easy to add too much.

[bigtoys]

nice to see some summer responses! keep'em coming.

[LikeItWasSodaPop]

Bar DeVille in Chicago is known for being a better than decent mixology bar without being too pretentious. But I was in there with a super hot girl who loves dirty martinis. Owner/bartender nearly spat in my face for asking for one. "We don't carry olives," he says. They have a couple PHC vintages, etc., but no olives. Talk about cocktail originalism / snobbery, what have you.

Love this thread for seeing the vast differences between people's various conceptions of martinis. Difference of opinion is great. But I wouldn't deny my customers what they ask for if I owned a bar.

Needless to say, I haven't been back!

[MrAtomic]

Bar DeVille in Chicago is known for being a better than decent mixology bar without being too pretentious. But I was in there with a super hot girl who loves dirty martinis. Owner/bartender nearly spat in my face for asking for one. "We don't carry olives," he says.

This bartender's oafishness cheesed me off enough to dig out my copy of Crosby Gaige's Standard Cocktail Guide (1944). Gaige was, I believe, a Broadway producer, dedicated booze-hound, and pig-out artist. I thought I'd cite Gaige's use of olives in a Martini as evidence that the Bar De Ville is stocked with pretentious clowns. But I see that Gaige suggests serving a dry Martini (2 oz gin, 3/4 oz dry vermouth, stirred over cracked ice) with a lemon twist, and a sweet Martini (2 oz gin, 3/4 oz sweet vermouth, stirred) with a cherry. Hmmm....

You know what? I don't care what Crosby Gaige has to say. That bartender was a jerk.

[BoozeTraveler]

Owner/bartender nearly spat in my face for asking for one. "We don't carry olives," he says. They have a couple PHC vintages, etc., but no olives. Talk about cocktail originalism / snobbery, what have you.

I refer to these nouveau "mixologist" speakeasy wannabe types as bardouches. Just like the new crowd of beer snobs, the "speakeasy" crowd that think they know everything there is to know and that everybody else is a bunch of idiots rankle me to no end.

[Trey Manthey]

I refer to these nouveau "mixologist" speakeasy wannabe types as bardouches. Just like the new crowd of beer snobs, the "speakeasy" crowd that think they know everything there is to know and that everybody else is a bunch of idiots rankle me to no end.

I have seen my share of "bardouches", as I am doing informal research to open my own mixology bar. I also generally agree that a bartender is there to prepare drinks at your pleasure.

However, just like I wouldn't order a mac'n'cheese off menu at an upscale gastropub, or a Boulevardier at a dive bar, you have to have some respect for the owner's concept for the venue. He made a decision to not carry olives. Maybe he thought that's not how a martini should be served. That filling a glass with brine overpowers the beverage (even though sometimes that's just what you want). Maybe he's just a snob. Whatever the case, he does sound like a jerk, and he could have been much more polite and helpful.

I was recently a very good speakeasy bar in Nashville, when two guys sat down at the bar next to me and ordered Bacardi and cokes before they had a chance to even look at the menu of 50+ incredible cocktails (which included detailed recipes and descriptions of each one). Instead of spitting, this employee politely explained that they didn't carry Bacardi, but only a special single barrel rum. The guy argued that he had ordered a Bacardi and coke last time he'd been there (which I would bet my life was "never"). Still the bartender patiently deferred to the cocktail list to recommend another drink. When the guy asked for a Red Bull and vodka, I thought he'd blow his top, but he managed to carefully steer him towards a mojito or a dark n' stormy, I think. In this case, the bardouche was the customer.

To stay on topic, I've recently cracked open a new bottle of Martin Miller's Westbourne strength gin. Last weekend, I made a couple martinis for myself and my friend with this in our favorite style. Stirred slowly over large chunks of cracked ice, a hint of Noilly Prat, poured into two well chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with a long strip of lemon. It really celebrates the flavors in the gin.

[BourbonJoe]

First of all, I like them on the rocks. Coat the rocks generously with dry vermouth. Add Bombay Sapphire Gin, a splash of olive juice. Put three large olives on a stick to stir. Ya Mon...

Joe :usflag:

[ratcheer]

... a sweet Martini (2 oz gin, 3/4 oz sweet vermouth, stirred) with a cherry. Hmmm....

Oddly, I had never heard of a sweet martini in my 45 years or so of drinking, but I tried this the other day and it was delicious. No cherry, though. I just used Tanqueray gin and M&R Red.

Tim

[univibe88]

Like my women - dirty and full of gin!

Joking aside, I don't prefer a dirty martini. I do like olives...garlic stuffed. I also like to wipe the rim with a piece of lemon peal and squeeze it over the drink, cascading tiny droplets of lemon oil across the top. But I discard the lemon. I don't put it in the martini.

Orange bitters are a must.

Beefeater is my go to. Boodles is also quite nice.

FWIW I consulted my copy of "The Official Mixer's Manual" by Patrick Gavin Duffy, copyright 1934. The martini recipe therein calls for 2/3 dry gin, 1/3 French vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters, stir with ice, strain and garnish with an olive.

[MrAtomic]

Oddly, I had never heard of a sweet martini in my 45 years or so of drinking, but I tried this the other day and it was delicious. No cherry, though. I just used Tanqueray gin and M&R Red.

Tim

[Clavius]

FWIW I consulted my copy of "The Official Mixer's Manual" by Patrick Gavin Duffy, copyright 1934. The martini recipe therein calls for 2/3 dry gin, 1/3 French vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters, stir with ice, strain and garnish with an olive.

I love trying new martini recipes! I need to upgrade my vermouth selection from Martini to Noilly Prat. And I'll have to find some orange bitters. But I definitely want to give this recipe a try.