Unhelpful

Last weekend, I had an odd dream. It was a dream about a martini. There was no plot. There was no action. There was just a martini. And it was there, you see.

When I awoke, I knew it was my job to save it.

“Save the Martini”

Like a lot of drinkers of my generation, I never really developed that particular taste for gin. There was something a little off-color about the flavor. Specifically, it was just a bit too herby. It is, by any standards, something of an acquired taste.

Presumably, that’s where a cocktail comes in handy, but there’s the rub: the martini is a misunderstood beast. The martini consists of two basic ingredients: dry London-style gin and white dry or (French style) vermouth. Given that the juniper flavor of gin is part and parcel of the martini, replacing gin with vodka makes an entirely different drink. Many “martini snobs” insist that the proper way to fix a martini is to pour the gin in the same room as a closed bottle of vermouth, or to wave a closed bottle of vermouth over the martini and whisper “vermouth” and that is vermouth enough. Some will concede that maybe a drop or two of vermouth is actually necessary.

Nonsense. Dry vermouth, unlike gin, is for me a taste that requires no “acquiring”. I like my wine white to begin with, and I enjoy both the sweet and the dry, so vermouth is just that very same taste taken to a slightly different destination.

What’s more, a cocktail implies that there is actually more than one spirit or liquor. Approaching a martini at a 8:1 gin:vermouth ratio is madness. Madness, I say! After all, it’s the gin that has the assertive flavor, and the vermouth that is more soft-spoken.

So clearly, the “martini snob” martini wasn’t for me. I needed something closer to the “martini purist” martini, with a curveball.

I present to you my recipie for the Saved Martini:

1 measure dry vermouth
2 measures London gin
olives
Angostura bitters
pure lemon extract (usually about 80% alcohol with 20% lemon oil, found in the baking section of your grocer - not to be confused with lemon juice or sweetened lemon juice from concentrate)

Into one tumbler filled with cracked ice, mix one measure of dry vermouth and two measures of ice cold London style gin. Shake vigorously.

Pour into cocktail glasses.

Into each glass add two drops of lemon extract - if you’re preparing cocktails for others, add this in front of them. The extract dances in the glass quite nicely before forming a constellation of lemon oil drops on the top of the drink. Add two drops Angostura bitters. Garnish with three olives on a toothpick.

Enjoy!