The Reverse Martini

Tags

Cocktail, Julia Child, Lillet, Martha Stewart, martini

Greetings from the other side of DC and yet another year of graduate school. Somehow I could continuously update during my first year of law school, but library school — otherwise known as the easy graduate program I’m in — totally escaped me, and there went a year. A thanks to all of my readers and Pinterest Pins who have stayed faithful (or discovered me on Google) while I strayed to graduate school, Kansas, Florida, and DC and picked up my life after my apartment building caught fire. Y’all have been very sweet, while I have been very distracted. Thank you, and on to the real reason you’re here: The Reverse Martini.

Cocktail Urban legend has this as Julia Child’s favorite cocktail. I’ve read My Life in France, As Always, Julia, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking and have yet to find evidence of its truthfulness. But, we never let the truth get in the way of a good story, so onward and upward.

Julia Child is purported to have this as her favorite cocktail. She would drink it while cooking and would serve it with appetizers. Her reason was that (1) it tasted good and (2) the drink with stimulate the appetite. Julia Child, as someone intimately concerned with food, would have thought this drink balanced nicely without intoxicating the drinker before the mail. As is so far the case with Mrs. Child, I have yet to find her wrong.

Reverse Martini

3 oz Lillet
3/4 oz Hendricks Gin
2 dashes orange bitters.

Shake over ice and strain into a martini class.

Review

Lillet is a relative of vermouth, so if you have had vermouth or the perfect than you have an idea of that this drink tastes like. If you have not had either, than it is difficult to describe the flavor, as it is unlike most other food or drink I have otherwise tasted. As an ingredient, vermouth and lillet are mysteries. Few people know all of the ingredients, and there are perhaps to many to guess.

The drink runs counter to the current American tradition of relying on the sweet and not the savory, so it is a gift to American cocktail culture, especially those who have drinks before dinner. Also, don’t pay attention to the drink that Martha Stewart calls a reverse martini in Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook. That’s a wet martini, not a reverse martini.

The Lillet is sharp but clean and even with a decent gin the aftertaste fades quickly. While the Lillet recipe calls for Hendricks gin, I have found Beef Eater works just as well. Remember the orange bitters, or you will be doing yourself a disservice.

This drink should be a stand by for anyone who serves hors d’oeuvres before dinner. Don’t take my work for it. Have faith in Julia Child.

Cost:

$22 Lillet Rouge for a 750 mL bottle
$18 Beefeater gin for a 750 mL bottle OR
$35 Hendricks Gin for a 750 mL bottle
$6 Orange Bitters

$46 if made with Beefeater Gin
$63 if made with Hendricks Gin

Cost per Drinks
$2.57 for Lilet
$0.53 for Beefeater Gin
$1.03 for Hendricks gin
$0.01 for Orange Bitters

$3.11/drink if made with Beefeater Gin.
$3.61/drink if made with Hendricks Gin

As always, happy and safe drinking.

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Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 5)

Tags

Casino Royale, Hendricks Gin, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Ketel One, martini, Vermouth

Happy 2012!

I hope the year is starting well for you. I’m continuing on with my martini series. This is drink number 5, and we have 2 more variations to go.

The Vesper

The Vesper was originally ordered by James Bond in Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. It’s the first martini when Vodka and Gin are both placed in the same cocktail.   It clearly combines the Vodka Cocktail and the Martini both from 1934. It’s a very 50s cocktail. It is the ratio of the liquor in the Vodka Cocktail of 3 to 1 and ration of the liquor to vermouth in the Martini of 12 to 1, sitting at a ratio of 8 to 1. As we’ll see later, this ratio of 8 to 1 is typical of the most martini ratios.

Let’s quote Ian Fleming, directly, shall we?

“A dry martini,” [Bond] said. “One. In a deep champagne goblet.”

“Oui, monsieur.”

“Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”

“Certainly, monsieur.” The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

“Gosh, that’s certainly a drink,” said Leiter.

Bond laughed. “When I’m…er…concentrating,” he explained, “I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I can think of a good name.”

In other words:

3 parts Vodka

1 part Gin

1/2 part Kina Lillet

Shake over ice. Pour into a champagne goblet. Add a slice of lemon peel.

Evaluation

I like the Vesper. It’s difficult to find Kina Lillet, at least in North Carolina and Kansas. When I have looked at the recipe, the internet suggests replacing the Kina Lillet with Dry Vermouth, which I did. I feel like there’s something missing from Fleming’s original recipe, but without Kina Lillet, I doubt that I will ever know what that is. The drink is delicious for those who love gin.

In the right mood, this is my favorite martini. It has the nice aromatics from gin but diluted with the taste of vodka, and just the hint of dry vermouth and a bit of lemon to leave the drinker with a nice crisp taste in the mouth. Each sip is a well-balanced taste. I recommend The Vesper to all martini lovers everywhere.

Cost

As I have written before, martinis necessitate good vodka, the less vermouth, the more the important the liquor. Because of that, I prefer Hendricks Gin and Ketel One vodka.

1 750 mL bottle of Hendricks: $35

1 750 mL bottle of Ketel One: $25

1 750 mL bottle of Martini & Rossi Dry vermouth: $8

Total cost: $68

It’s an expensive drink, but it’s worthwhile. As always, happy and safe drinking.

Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 4)

Tags

Cocktail, Gin, martini, Vermouth, Vodka

I hope you all had a Happy Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. I wrote about New Year’s cocktails in 2009, and I’m just not feeling inspired for ringing in 2012. The cocktails are still amazing and unusual, so I strongly recommend you look at the post for a Champagne cocktail suggestion for New Years.  Both drinks are really easy and quick.

I’m writing this blog post in advance so I will be in Kansas traversing the eastern third of the state. I’ve realized that 2011 was a good year for me. I was out-of-town for about 9 weeks. I had a great time. I traversed the countryside and got into a really good law school. This year, I will be looking back at the great year I was fortunate enough to have. So, thank you who helped make this year great. At the time of writing, my blog is over 5,000 hits, which is crazy, because I hit just over 1,000 hits in May. It is certainly not the insanity of the millions of viral hits, but those hits are important. I have had a number of you tell me that I’m a great writer and you like reading the blog. I hope you have had as much fun reading this and encouraging me, as I have had writing it. I like and need this creative outlet into my brain.

This year, I’m feeling simple, which is why I want to keep exploring the martini. A martini has few ingredients but somehow exists in infinite permutations. To quote H.L. Mencken, “The martini: the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.” It’s a beautiful drink.

Evolution, Part 4: From Gin to Vodka

You can’t write about the martini, without writing about the evolution from gin to vodka. There are several theories of when the vodka martini first appeared in print. The first theory is that the vodka martini recipe appeared in a 1939 advertisement for “Vodka Kiprisky.” This theory is perpetuated by Ted Haigh, in his book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. He is also the curator for the Museum of the American cocktail.  However, in Straight up or on The rock: The story of the American Cocktail  by William Grimes, he states that the vodka martini was originally put in print in 1934 in Esquire in their article “Top 10 Best Cocktails of 1934.” I cannot find a copy of that ad, but I emailed the Museum of the American Cocktail, and they sent me a copy of the recipe as printed in 1934. They also have a great blog, which I highly recommend.

In 1934, the year after Prohibition, the drink was originally called the vodka cocktail. From the recipe, though, this obviously evolves from the martini, that not including it would be doing you a disservice. It is one of the few times I will include a drink not called the martini, but you’ll see why.

So, on to the first time that I have found that the vodka martini ever appeared in print.

The Vodka Cocktail

3 parts Vodka

1/2 part Italian (or dry) vermouth

1/2 part French (or sweet) vermouth)

Stir over ice. Strain into a martini glass.

Evaluation

It’s interesting because we see vodka merging with the tastes of pre and post-Prohibition era gin martinis. In Part 2, the drink was half gin and half vermouth, but either kind of vermouth could be used. Here we see an example of a perfect martini where the types of vermouth are in equal proportions. The drink is also clearly influenced by the post-Prohibition martini, written about in Part 3, martinis moved away from the half gin, half vermouth from the early days.

This drink is a 3 to 1, so think is totally my speed, but as we all know this drink was quickly abandoned. I recommend it to the vermouth lovers out there, but there are so few of us left.

This martini necessitates a proper bottle of vodka. My personal favorite is Ketel One, so prices will be based on that vodka.

Cost

Vodka: $25 per 750 mL bottle

Dry Vermouth: $8 per 750 mL bottle

Sweet Vermouth: $8 per 750 mL bottle

Total cost: $41.

As always, happy and safe drinking.

 

Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 3)

Tags

Cocktail, Gin, martini, Vermouth

So, I’m done with law school finals, and I get to pretend to have a life again! I’m hoping to get my blog in order, so that way it’s not 3 blog posts in a week and then zero for the next few months.

So, I have no idea how finals went. For those of you who were smart enough not to go to law school or talk to law school students, this is how exams work. You walk in feeling prepared, and then the one small point about the law is the one not in your outline, and then you’re graded against everyone else. Law school finals are a real curve and not a fake curve in undergraduate when the curve meant “The highest grade missed 4 points, so we’re moving everyone’s grade up by 4.” It’s a real bell curve with a target median. So not only do you not know how you did on the final, but you have no idea how you did relative to each other. It’s a sadistic little system.

But on to more important things:

Evolution of the Martini, Part 3

In Part 1, we looked at a martini recipe from 1895. Then we moved into Prohibition in Part 2, and looked at martini recipes from 1934, but that focused on how Martinis were made during Prohibition.

Now, we’re going to take a look at a post-Prohibition cocktail, although it’s from a book published the same year. 1934 was a big year for cocktails. The next, which will be the recipe for the first published vodka martini, is from Esquire from 1934, which makes sense because the 21st Amendment which repealed Prohibition, passed in December 1933.

Prohibition was probably the most defining moment of how Americans drank liquor of the 20th century. In 1934, everything changed. As we’ll see below, there was no more bathtub gin, spirits like brandy could be brought in from France, alcohol tasted better and was less likely to kill you. Americans went back to wanting to taste the booze.

So, from Burke’s Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes by Harman Burney Burke, published 1934

The Martini

2 oz Gin

1 tsp French Vermouth

Orange Bitters

Place all ingredients over ice. STIR. Pour into a martini glass.

Evaluation

As we can see, this is a huge shift away from the Prohibition cocktail, which was half gin and half vermouth. The martini is getting a lot drier. So, if you know anyone who likes a 12 to 1 martini, they like the 30s martini.

As many of my readers know, I am a gin martini fan, however, I like my vermouth. I am not afraid of it. So this martini is too dry for me. Although, I think it beats the vermouth rinse martini or my least favorite: the vaporizing of vermouth across the room from the glass martini. Or, as I like to call it, “I don’t want to admit that I really just want gin shaken on the rocks, but I’m not an alcoholic” martini.

Cost

I think the less vermouth you use, the better the gin needs to be. I would go with Hendricks, Tanqueray, or Bombay.

Gin: $30 per 750 mL bottle

Vermouth: $8 per 750 mL bottle

Orange bitters: $5 per 12 oz bottle.

Total cost: $43

As always, happy and safe drinking.

Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 2)

Tags

Cocktail, Cocktail glass, Drink, Gin, martini, Orange bitters, Vermouth

Like I said in my last post, we’re starting at the beginning of the martini and moving forward through time. In Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 1), I found the oldest recipe for a martini that I could find and moved forward.

Now, we’re onto the Martini from the 1930s.

We also see the “Dry Martini” come into development for the first time.

These two drink recipes are from What Shall We Drink? by Magnus Bredenbek (1934)

The Martini (for 2)

3/4 of a glass of a cocktail glass of sweet gin

3/4 of a glass of Dry or Sweet Vermouth

Sweeten with “gum” to taste

4 dashes of orange bitters

The “Dry” Martini

3/4 of a glass of a cocktail glass of sweet gin

3/4 of a glass of Dry or Sweet Vermouth (not the sweeter type)

Sweeten with “gum” to taste (but not as much as a Martini for 2)

4 dashes of orange bitters

Evaluation

Note: A standard martini glass is 4 oz.

Also note: gum or “gomme” syrup for mixed drinks is simple syrup that has added gum arabic.

We can see from the 30’s that there was a tendency to create a sweeter drink that we have returned to. I don’t use simple syrup in martinis because I feel like that removes the drink’s integrity. However, if the drink is too herbal or bitter for you, add simple syrup and tell people you’re drinking it 1930’s style.

Given how we think of dry martinis, this is obviously a misnomer. Our concept of a “dry” martini is nothing like this. But, since I’m pro vermouth, I obviously like both.

I’ve written about the American Classic, and we can tell that it comes from the 1930’s version of a martini. Rather than adding either French (sweet) or Italian (dry) vermouth, we add equal parts of both until the ratio is 1 part gin to 1 part vermouth.

I love these martinis.

Cost

The cost is about the same for each drink, so I’m going to do one.

Gin: $20 per 750 mL bottle

Vermouth: $8 per 750 mL bottle

Orange bitters: $5 per 12 oz bottle.

Total Cost: $33

Cost per Drink:

Gin: $1.20

Vermouth: $0.48

Bitters: $0.01

Total Cost: $1.69

Total Cost: $0.85/drink.

A fun martini quote:

I love to drink Martinis,
Two at the very most
After three I’m under the table,
After four I’m under my host.

–Dorothy Parker

As always, happy and safe drinking. Next post: The Transition to vodka.

Martinis, Evolution, and the Evolution of the Martini (Part 1)

Tags

Cocktail, Gin, martini, Vermouth

Hello, again, Gentle Reader. It hasn’t been as long this time.

One of the things that they do stress in law school is how much you change, grow, and evolve during law school. The purpose of law school is to train you “to think like a lawyer” as my Criminal Law Professor tells us. The way they do this is incredibly painful. They take you as you are, strip you down to your barest essentials, and then build you back up in a thinking, breathing, lawyering machine. I get told this daily.

Evolution has been on my mind. Who we are. Who we were. The process of getting between those two. As it so often does, this makes me think about booze.

I’ve decided to do a serious on the martinis. As you know, I generally shy away from the classics, because everyone has written about them. We’re going to start from the very beginning.

Going back to 1895:

The Martini

The martini is iconic. Nick and Nora Charles throwing back martinis while solving a mystery. James Bond sipping while uncovering international plots designed to overthrow Western society. F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby. We associate the martini  with leisure and sophistication.  While that association with the martini has never left, would the original martini recognize itself?

The original martini was completely different in its inception than who it is now.

Looking at Modern American Drinks by George Kappeler (1895), this is the recipe for the Martini Cocktail:

1/2 jigger of Tom Gin

1/2 jigger Italian (dry) Vermouth

3 dashes bitters

Evaluation

Isn’t that crazy? I like vermouth, but I think this might almost be too much vermouth for me. I’ve never had it with this much Italian vermouth before, but I do like many of my martinis half liquor, half vermouth as you may remember from my American Classic or Manhattan, Perfect? post. But this is the original incantation of the martini. Or at least the earliest published martini recipe that I could find.

If anyone can an older martini recipe let me know.

Cost

It’s really difficult to find Old Tom’s Gin now. Although if anyone ever sees a bottle and wants to gift me a bottle, let me know.

Gin: $20 per 750 mL bottle

Vermouth: $8 per 750 mL bottle

Orange bitters: $5 per 12 oz bottle.

Total Cost: $33

Cost per Drink:

1/2 jigger = 0.75 oz.

Gin: $0.60

Vermouth: $0.24

Bitters: $0.01

Total Cost: $0.85/drink.

As always, happy and safe drinking. Next up: the 1930’s cocktail!

Pomegranate Martinis

Tags

Bartender, Cocktail, martini, Pomegranate

So, I’ve been watching/finished Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime. It’s a super fun show. Wikipedia will give you a better plot summary than me. So, here you go.

One of the things that I really enjoy that the wiki article does not talk about is that the main characters drink in every episode. Sometimes wine, sometimes martinis, and sometimes pomegranate martinis.

Build Your Home Bartending Skills

Before we get to the drink, let’s talk about a basic building block for your home bartending skill. One of the things that many recipe books, experts, articles talk about is the idea of learning the proper and basic proportions for building cocktails. When looking at this drink, you can tell that the original creator started with the basic recipe for a martini:

2 oz liquor and 1/2 oz mixer; or 4 parts liquor and 1 part mixer.

As you do a Google Search for pomegranate martinis, the recipe has obviously been altered since then, while still staying near to its original proportions. I’ve been meaning to write about these for a while, because they’re so popular and everyone has a taste for it.

Pomegranate Passion

This recipe is from the Cape Codder.

1 oz Citrus Vodka

1 oz Pomegranate Liqueur

Dash of triple sec

Splash of Cranberry Juice (for color)

Mix all ingredients over ice in a shaker. Strain and pour into a martini glass.

Evaluation

I personally don’t like the taste of pomegranate liqueur. It tastes artificial, like banana candy. You think it’s a good idea, and then you consume it. That taste becomes the aftertaste of the cocktail, so it ruins the cocktail for me. I need a great aftertaste to compliment the liquor in the drink.

I would definitely consider trying a Pom-tini with pomegranate juice instead of the liqueur. Possibly even a muddled pomegranate. It’s a 2 star drink. I would serve it to someone who really likes fruity cocktails and will only drink vodka.

Cost

Total Cost

750 mL bottle of Citrus Vodka: $14.00

750 mL bottle of Pomegranate Liqueur: $10.00

750 mL bottle of triple sec: $4.00

Bottle of Cranberry Juice : $4.00

Total Cost: $32

Cost per Drink

1 oz Citrus Vodka: $0.56

1 oz Pomegranate Liqueur: $0.40

Dash of triple sec: $0.08

Splash of Cranberry Juice: $0.03

Total Cost per Drink: $1.07

As always, happy and safe drinking.

Manhattan Perfect?

Tags

Cocktail, Manhattan, Manhattan Kansas, martini, Martini & Rossi, Raleigh North Carolina, Vermouth

A Manhattan is my favorite cocktail for a lot of reasons. I have an odd feeling that over the course of the life of my blog, I’ll probably write about Manhattans a lot. It’s one of the most versatile cocktails. There are 5 optional ingredients and 2 required ones.

Manhattan is a motif in my life. I grew up in Manhattan, KS. I went to college in Manhattan, KS. A Manhattan is one of my favorite drinks. It was the first drink that I made for me to my taste perfection. It is one of the drinks that I was known for in Manhattan, KS and has become a signature cocktail in Raleigh. A Manhattan Perfect is my idea of Manhattan’s Perfection.

I realized last week when my fraternity brother Bert tagged me in a post to donate to the “Team Dockins Delta Lambda Phi Beta Mu team fundraiser for AIDSWalk in Kansas City.” I’ve written about Jason before, he was my fraternity brother who killed himself about 3 years ago. After Jason committed suicide, Beta Mu became home. It became one of the places in my life where “. . .when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” After being in Raleigh for about a year and half, I’ve realized that I know longer think of Manhattan and Beta Mu as my current home. I had this thought where if I was going to donate my money and time to a HIV/AIDS organization, I would donate to Crape Myrtle.

Raleigh has become home.

But, with some many things in life, how do you move from who you are to who you want to become? When I first moved here, I knew what I was going to do. Get a job, support Michael through nursing school, and eventually I would earn my Masters and my law degree. I had a game plan. I became a “Good on Paper” person. I had a job, a degree, a husband, and a bank account with savings in it. I let work consume me. After working 60 hours a week, all I wanted to do was stay home. I settled for fast food and bad gin and tonics, because I was someone. I was “Good on Paper,” I didn’t have to worry about being good in life. Like so many people eventually realize, boy, was I wrong.

So, now I’m learning to make Raleigh home. To find those people and places that when I go there, they have to take me in. How, do I recreate what I had in Manhattan here? And nostalgia doesn’t help. It makes you long for things that don’t exist and never did. But how do you make a Raleigh Perfect look like a Manhattan Perfect?

Manhattan Perfect

2 oz Jameson whiskey

1 oz Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth

1 oz Martini and Rossi Sweet Vermouth

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Pour all ingredients in a shaker over ice. Stir the cocktail. Strain into a martini shaker.

Evaluation:

I have to say this, before anything else. Do NOT garnish with a Maraschino cherry. The cherries sold in grocery stores are disgusting and poison.

This drink is not for the faint of heart. You have to like vermouth. Many people do not. As Michael says, most people don’t like vermouth the first twenty times they have it. Americans  have a taste for sweet and fruit instead of bitter and herbal. I’m always really unusual in that I use Irish whiskey and not a Rye like Jim Bean or Wild Turkey. Different types of whiskeys are made different ways and such can have very different flavors.

Cost:

Cost per drink:

$25 for a 750 mL bottle of Jameson

$8 for a 750 mL bottle of Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth

$8 for a 750 mL bottle of Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth

$6 for a 5 oz bottle of Angostura Bitters

Total cost: $47 for everything

Cost per drink:

$2 for Jameson Whiskey

$0.32 for Dry Vermouth

$0.32 for Sweet Vermouth

$0.01 for the bitters

Total cost per glass: $2.65

 

As always happy and safe drinking.

Vermouth

Tags

Cocktail shaker, Drink, martini, Old Fashioned glass, Vermouth

Gentle Reader–

It’s time to talk about this great ingredient that popular taste has regulated further and further out of our cocktail glass and back into the bottle: Vermouth. I’ve seen recipes for vodka martinis that request the drink be 1/16th Vermouth. 1/16th! Which may still sound like a lot, let’s put this in perspective. An average martini is two to four ounces. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say the martini that we’re working with is 4 oz. So we’re looking at 1/4th of an ounce which is equal to about half a tablespoon. The worst part of this is for many people, this is not an extra dry vodka martini, this is a regular good old fashioned vodka martini.

Vomit.

This craze of the drier that better when it comes to martinis is ludicrous. I would lobby Congress for a change, but I’m afraid, in this case, the existing establishment is the problem. Supposedly, by having just the small amount of vermouth described above (or God forbid, the vermouth wash and dump,) it changes the flavor of drink to make it the cocktail.

I don’t know who these people are who are afraid of vermouth. One common excuse is that people don’t like the taste of vermouth. If you don’t like the taste of the ingredient, why is it going in the drink at all? Especially in a drink that only has two ingredients.

Do not be afraid of vermouth. Or if you are, you might want to switch to a new cocktail. I hear vodka neat is lovely. Try and spice it up. Besides, vermouth is substantially cheaper than whatever liquor you’re mixing it with. Or it should be. The only thing worse than a martini with two drops of vermouth is a martini with cheap liquor.

Experiment with an old favorite:

The Perfect

1 part Sweet Vermouth

1 part Dry Vermouth

• Add ice to a rocks glass.
• Add all ingredients in the rocks glass.
• Using a martini shaker, pour the drink into the shaker and back into the glass.
• Enjoy!

Evaluation

This is an aperitif that I really enjoy. Be warned, it is not high in alcohol content. I use Martini & Rossi vermouth and it is 36 proof or less than half the alcohol content of vodka. Definitely for you pre-dinner drinkers.

Cost:

750 mL bottle of Dry Vermouth: $5 – $10

750 mL bottle of Sweet Vermouth: $5 – $10

Total Cost: $10 – $20

As always, happy and safe drinking!