We all know the recipe for the classic martini — vodka or
gin and a splash of Vermouth. Shake it up, serve it with an olive or a twist of
lemon and cheers! But it didn’t start out exactly like that.
The common myth is the martini is named after the Martini and
Rossi brand of Italian vermouth after a case of the wine arrived in New York in
the 1870s where a Manhattan bartender put it to good use.
But other legend is that it was invented in 1860 at the
Occidental Hotel thanks to a ferry guests could take to Martinez, California. Yet another story is that the drink was created in Martinez,
but by a bartender there.
Whatever the case, by 1887, the drink appeared in a cocktail
recipe book by bartended Jerry Thomas and a legend was born.
His recipe for the drink is a dash of bitters, two dashes of
Maraschino liqueur, one ounce of gin and two ounces of sweet vermouth, shaken and
strained into a glass with a quarter slice of lemon. It was on the sweeter side and not at all the dry martinis we love today.
By 1907, the drink started to dry out, so to speak. The recipe became gin, vermouth, a dash of bitters and a lemon and olive garnish.
Over the next 100 years, the recipe keeps morphing, becoming
drier and drier. It moved from a 1:1 ratio of vermouth and gin, increasing in
gin and decreasing in vermouth each decade until it became the drink of today.
Ratios can go anywhere from 8:1 to 15:1 gin to vermouth. This is likely due to the fact that the quality of gin has increased and does not need to be masked with sweet wine.
Sometimes, in a modern martini, vodka takes
the place of vermouth and a little olive juice makes it dirty. They can be shaken or stirred (thank you, James Bond), served straight up or on the rocks.
Now the term martini is used to describe any drink in a cone-shaped glass from chocolate to fruity. Plus, there are millions of cheeky variations on the original, such as the Churchill (gin sipped from the freezer while glancing at a closed bottle of vermouth) or James Bond's Vesper (gin, vodka and Lillet Blanc), but a classic martini never goes out of style. Gin or vodka, onion or olive, don't be afraid to mix it up like some bartender, who may or may not have been named Martinez, did so long ago.