Cocktail Secrets

My first experience with a martini was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. I was on my honeymoon in Cancun and part of our hotel package included a beverage credit of $100. At the time drinks were only $3-$4 each and if you bought them during happy hour they were two for the price of one. If you do the math - that’s a lot of cocktails! My bride and I certainly enjoyed it.

On our last day, waiting in the lobby for the cab, we still had some beverage credit remaining and we decided to try a martini. Looking back on it, I suppose we were silly to order a martini there, but after seven days of indulging in tequila and kahula, any change was welcome. What we ordered was a martini, what we got was liquid hair spray in a plastic cup over ice. In a word: nasty.
That rather rude experience kept me away from one of the best cocktails in the world. Here’s how to mix it right:

Don’t rush perfection: a good dry martini takes 5-7 minutes to mix. You’ll need: Gin, Dry Vermouth, Martini Glasses, a Shaker, Mini Ice Cubes, Olives, and a Strainer. For the gin, I prefer Bombay Sapphire, if you’re not familiar with gins, this is a good place to start. For Dry Vermouth I use LeJon (Dry Vermouth will be listed as Extra Dry on the label, the opposite of dry is Sweet Vermouth - you can find Vermouth in the wine section typically.) To be honest there’s nothing special about LeJon, it just happens to be the one I have. As always make sure your ice is freshly made - no more than a week old - and made from a pure source such as bottled drinking water or filtered water. For olives get the smaller variety, about the size of your thumbnail with pimentos. Ironically, I’ve had the best luck with store-brand olives.

Starting temperatures. My gin is slightly cooled in a room that is 60 degrees. Don’t get your gin much cooler or it won’t melt the correct amount of ice and the martini will have an alcohol burn. Good martini’s have no burn. The Dry Vermouth is refrigerated.

Start off by placing your martini glasses in the freezer. Remember we never pour a cold drink into a warm glass. For one to two martinis, fill the shaker slightly less than half full with mini ice cubes. Add 2 oz gin for a single cocktail or 4 oz for two. Add 1/4 oz dry vermouth for one or 1/2 oz for two. Let the shaker set undisturbed for five minutes. After five minutes, take the martini glasses out of the freezer and place two or three olives in the bottom of each glass. Don’t get an excessive amount of the olive salt water in the glass - several drops are ok, but no more. In the same way, don’t drain off your olives too much because they are very important to the drink’s flavor cycle. A bar spoon is helpful for this step.
Now shake that shaker like you mean it. I’m looking for a full body, go nuts, shake fest that lasts 30 to 45 seconds. This’ll get that martini cracklin’ cold, which is exactly what you want. If your shaker has a built in strainer, use it to strain the martini into your glasses. If not, use a cocktail strainer.

Enjoy immediately.

Some final tips. Don’t stir the martini while enjoying it. When crafted correctly every sip of the martini will be different as the martini warms and the olives’ oils, salts and natural flavors mingles with the gin and vermouth. It’s really something amazing and I know of no other cocktail that can boast the same. If there’s still some martini left in the shaker, put the shaker in the freezer - if left out it’ll melt too much of the ice and have a watered-down quality. When your glass is empty, re-fill.

As always, if you have a question, or want to see a particular recipe or liquor reviewed, post it. No registration required.

It’s true.

No one has ever parted with coin to sample one of my cocktail creations. So that begs the question, “Why listen to me?” Why would you care what I have to say about mixing drinks?

It comes down to one word: Passion. I love booze. As a little kid I nicked little taste samples out of my fokes’ liquor cabinet - not for the effect - I just liked the flavors. Fast forward 20 years and now I make cocktails almost every night - for myself, my family and friends. My home bar typically has 60-80 bottles of the good stuff. I haven’t used a recipe book in years. Most of the recipes suck - you know I’m right. I’ve become so adapt at creating cocktails I can actually taste it in my mind before I make it. Crazy huh?

I’ve had of plenty of practice creating cocktails. Back in 2003 I won a Bols contest (Bols is a maker of flavored liquors, like creme de banana and triple sec). I competed against hundreds of bartenders around the world to create the most highly rated cocktail recipes (as rated by the Bols judges). After the dust settled I had created over 2000 cocktail recipes including the highest rated recipe submitted. For my efforts, Bols sent my wife and me to Lisbon for an all-expenses-paid vacation. That was kick-ass!

I’m sorry for all the chest-thumping - but it’s important that you know where I’m coming from, right? You don’t want to take mixing advice from some guy who doesn’t know the difference between peach schnapps and peach brandy. So here’s the deal. I want to give back - I want to share with you the amazing world of taste that can only be discovered by mixing up the good stuff. Life’s too short to be drinking bad cocktails. I’ll show you how to do it right. Cheers!