Dry Martini: Predecessors and Variations

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If you think dry martini is the simplest cocktail to make with just 2 basic ingredients, think again. It’s not always that case and the martini has also a long list of intermingling history to it. Let’s look at this simple yet interesting cocktail.

Dry Martini’s Long List of Predecessors

Did you know that Dry Martini was first known as Martini whose foremost predecessor is Manhattan? And before it became Martini it had to go through being a Martinez? Being the great grandfather of dry martini, the Manhattan was first created in 1882 and was made from a mixture of whiskey, vermouth, and bitters.

Next came the Martinez created in the late 1860s or the early 1870s. Martinez decided to take a step further by mixing together sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueurs, and bitters. Some bartenders also prefer to add orange curacao on top of the other ingredients.
From there, the Martinez was simplified into the martini which calls for sweet vermouth, sugar syrup, and orange bitters on top of the London dry gin and was called Martini. This cocktail became so popular that it merited its own V-shaped glass.

Dry Martini

Dry martini calls for just vermouth and vodka or gin. To make it extra dry, go for even less or no vermouth at all. All it needs is the lemon zest garnish and it’s an extra dry martini.

Ingredients
2 ½ shots of vodka
Dash of Martini Rosso

Procedure
Add ice into a mixing glass.
Add the Martini Rosso and vodka.
Stir for a bit, just to chill the cocktail but not dilute it.
Strain into a martini glass.Add a zest of lemon after giving it a quick twist over the glass to release the oils.

Dirty Martini

The dirty martini is made with olive brine on top of the vermouth and the gin or vodka. Since you won’t be using ice here, keep the vermouth and gin chilled in the fridge.

Ingredients:
5ml (1 bar spoon/ 1/6oz) Dolin Dry vermouth, chilled in the fridge
60ml (2oz) chilled Gin Mare
Dash of olive brine
Garnish with an olive or 3 on a skewer.

Method:
Add vermouth & gin to your chilled mixing glass.
Fill mixing glass with ice and stir until you reach your desired dilution.
Strain into a martini glass.
And finish with the classic olives on a skewer.

If there is a dry martini, is there a wet martini?

Actually, there is. Wet martini has more vermouth in it. Instead of a dash of vermouth used in dry martini, wet martini uses a 1:2 or 1:1 vermouth to vodka/gin ratio.

Wet Martini

Ingredients:
20ml semi-dry vermouth
40ml chilled vodka
A grapefruit twist to garnish

Procedure:
Add vermouth & gin to your chilled mixing glass.
Fill mixing glass with ice and stir until you reach your desired dilution.
Strain into a martini glass.
Take your grapefruit twist and fold it sharply over the glass to express all the citrus oils, adding a flavour punch to your drink.
Curl the twist around itself to give it a nice glass holding shape and pop it into the glass.

Shaken, not Stirred

Anyone who has watched James Bond movies, his quintessential drink is “vodka, shaken not stirred.” While the classic martini is stirred, the James Bond character always demands a shaken one. This is made with gin, vodka, and Lillet vermouth. Shaking the cocktail makes it a bit cloudy than the stirred one with the incorporation of air during the shaking process.

Vesper Martini

Ingredients:
3 oz gin
1 oz vodka
½ oz Lillet Blanc Wine
A slice of lemon

Procedure:
Chill a martini glass by filling it with crushed ice.
Fill the bigger ton of a cocktail shaker with ice.
Sit the smaller tin into the bigger tin so the smaller tin gets chilled without
the ice.
Pour in the ingredients into the smaller shaker tin.
Pour out the ice from the larger tin then shake the cocktail.
Strain it into a martini glass.
Swipe the lemon wedge on the edge of the martini glass, squeeze the remaining juice into the cocktail and drop in the wedge into the glass.

Conclusion

There you have it, a good rundown of everyone’s favorite dry martini came to be. As long as bartenders do not stop trying to make new drinks, we are bound to enjoy more of them. Maybe you might also want to try the apple versions of martini and Manhattan soon. Enjoy!

This DRY MARTINI report is a reposted of advancedmixology.com blog