Martini

The Dirty Martini

February 10, 2023 No Comments

A tarnished classic cleans up its act

It’s the addition of olive brine, with its oils, murk and floaties, that makes a Martini “dirty.” Getty Images photo

If given the choice, you’d pick potato chips over chocolate. You prefer your cheese well aged and a little blue. When you order sushi, you always need to refill your soy dipping bowl. You can’t wait for mushroom season. And you almost certainly have at least three types of salt in your pantry right now.

If you’re the sort of person who craves savoury and salty flavours, then the Dirty Martini is the drink for you. Luckily, it’s no longer the pariah of the cocktail set.

Well, sort of.

Recipes

Dirty Martini

February 9, 2023 No Comments

A savoury variation on the classic

2.5 oz gin or vodka

0.5 oz dry vermouth

0.25 to 0.5 oz olive brine

Garnish: 1 or 3 olives on a skewer

Features

Top 10 cocktail trends for 2022

December 30, 2021 No Comments

Our experts weigh in on what—and how—you will be drinking this winter

The Espresso Martini is the retro drink we’re craving right now.
Getty Images photos

What’s new? What’s next? In some ways, the pandemic has changed everything about how we drink. In others, it’s only accelerated trends that were already in the works. We checked in with experts both local and global, and here’s what they had to say about the way we’re drinking now and in the months to come.

Recipes

Umami Martini

January 14, 2021 No Comments

Replace murky olive brine with clear bitters in this evolution of the classic Dirty Martini.

• 1.5 oz gin

• 0.5 oz dry vermouth

• 2 dashes The Japanese Bitters Umami Bitters (or to taste)

• Garnish: cocktail olives or pickled mushroom (optional)

Classics

The Martini

June 5, 2020 No Comments

The murky past of a clear favourite

Plenty a tall tale has crossed the polished oak; after all, bartenders like to dish out lively anecdotes along with the gin and spiced nuts. But when it comes to boozy myths, legends, outright lies and wholesale whoppers, “more cling to the Martini than any other cocktail.”

So writes Robert Simonson in his IACP-nominated book The Martini Cocktail (Ten Speed Press). He is fascinated by the outsize role the Martini has played in popular culture ever since its invention in 1849, or maybe it was the 1880s, or possibly 1906, who knows?

Classics, Recipes

Martini

June 3, 2020 No Comments

The classic, as it has evolved over more than a century of opinionated drinking.

• 2.5 oz London dry gin
• 0.25 to 0.5 oz dry vermouth
• Garnish: lemon peel twist or olives

Bar Bites

The Old Fashioned may be tops, but bring on the Bamboo!

April 12, 2019 No Comments

The Old Fashioned is the top-selling cocktail in the world, according to Drinks International. Istockphoto.com photo

In January, Drinks International, a trade publication for the alcohol industry, released its annual list of the 50 best cocktails—or at least the best-selling ones—around the world. It’s perhaps no big surprise that the top drink, for the fifth year running, was that classic whisky-based bittered sling, the Old Fashioned.

Recipes

I Sat By The Ocean

March 30, 2017 No Comments

“I decided to embrace the salty, briny taste of this Manzanilla sherry and create a pickle juice Martini on steroids. The salt and pepper rim complements the sherry’s terroir near the ocean, and the peppery punch of the tequila, while the celery bitters and oils from the lemon peel keep it light and crisp.”