A Martini - Shaken or Stirred?  You Decide.

If Phil and I could be fictional characters, we'd choose Nick and Nora Charles.  He always elegant, debonair, a bon vivant.  She a sassy, beautiful, heiress.  Together they throw lavish parties, drink with no ill-effect, and solve the occasional murder.  Their love of cocktails is a running gag throughout the Thin Man Movies.

My approach to crafting cocktails is to learn from professionals and then tinker until I like the results.  Here is a recipe for a classic dry martini, requiring no special tools. 

Classic Dry Martini  (Makes 2 Drinks)
6 ounces gin
2 teaspoons dry vermouth
Ice from filtered water or purchased bagged ice
2 strips of peel from a large fresh lemon
2 large green olives (optional)

Place two cocktail glasses in freezer.  Pour gin and vermouth in a large heavy tumbler, such as a pint beer glass or 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup.  Add 7 large ice cubes.  Using a long spoon, stir for 90 seconds.  Remove glasses from freezer.  Using the back of the mixing spoon as a barrier to the ice, pour drink into chilled glasses. 

Hold lemon peel about 4 inches above and slightly off to the side of the rim of the glass, and squeeze to express the citrus oil over the drink.  Run the peel side around the rim of the glass, and gently float peel on top of the cocktail.  Add olives, if desired. 

Gin or vodka, or both?  And which brand? 

Purists insist the only martini is a gin martini.  Piffle.  I like gin or vodka alone, or half and half.   

Different styles and flavor profiles of spirits yield dramatically different results.  Visit a good cocktail bar and try a few before you buy bottles.  Our "house" martini is half Bombay gin and half Kettle One vodka. Combined, they make a clean, crisp cocktail.  For a little botanical flavor, but still an economical drink, use Tanqueray gin.  In the mood for something more complex?  Small-craft Washington distillers produce rich, botanical vodka and gin that make full-bodied, distinctive martinis.  A few to try are:  Bainbridge Organic Distillers, Oola, Sun Distillers, and Coppertop. 

Vermouth   

Several brands of dry vermouth are readily available.  Martini & Rossi Extra Dry and Noily Prat are ubiquitous, and just fine.  Dolin or Lillet Blanc are one step up in price and quality. 

Bar Toys

There are a few pieces of barware that make mixing cocktails easier and more elegant, and they are inexpensive.  A shot glass or two is a must.  Otherwise, you most likely have an equivalent item in your kitchen, so it's up to you if you want to spend money on toys.

Yarai cut glass mixing pitcher.  Available at most kitchen supply stores or online for about $25.  They usually come with a Hawthorne strainer, which I highly recommend.

Cocktail glasses.  Buy mismatched vintage glassware in antique shops for $3 - $8 per glass. Don't buy glasses that hold more than 6 ounces.  Smaller glasses mean your drink is properly chilled from first to last sip. 

Long bar spoon.  Makes mixing easier, and is good for cracking ice, if you want smaller cubes for drinks.  

Channel knife.  For removing long strips of citrus peel for twists.

Cocktail shaker.  Buy a big metal cup base, a heavy pint glass, and a strainer. These are the workhorses of the professional barkeep.  Forget the three-piece metal sets.

Ice.  There are a variety of shapes and sizes of ice molds designed for use with different cocktails depending on how much dilution you want in a drink.  Molds are available at kitchen supply and barware stores.  The only critical element is that your ice has no off-taste.  Filter your water or buy ice.

A Few Martini Variations

Add a little olive brine to the mixing glass for a dirty martini.

Add a few drops of orange bitters to the mixing glass.  Buy bitters at grocery  or liquor stores.

Pink Gin or Vodka:  Add 6 drops of Peychauds bitters to the classic martini recipe. Omit the vermouth and olives.

Vespa:  Equal parts gin and vodka with Cocchi Americano (to taste).  Replace lemon twist with grapefruit twist.  Omit olive.

Vesper: 3 ounces Tanqueray gin, 1 ounces Stolichnaya vodka, 1/2 ounce Lillet Blanc, dash Peychaud bitters. (This per Esquire magazine, in recreating the classic James Bond cocktail using modern ingredients.)  Follow directions for preparing classic martini.

Shaken or stirred?     

Cocktails that are 100% spirit are stirred to prevent over-diluting and to prevent ice chips from making the drink cloudy.  
Cocktails that contain ingredients other than spirit, such as fruit juice or simple syrup, are shaken to insure all ingredients are fully blended.  Drinks that contain raw egg are given a dry shake first (no ice), and then a second shake with ice, and poured through a mesh strainer.

We almost always stir a martini.

A Stirred Martini

But here's the thing.  If it's a hot night, I advocate putting glasses, shaker, and spirits in the freezer for half an hour, and shaking up a frosty martini, with a few ice chips suspended for extra coolness.  Right or wrong?  I don't care. 

A Shaken Martini

Bear in mind that martinis are all spirit, and so meant to be sipped and enjoyed in moderation.  As Dorothy Parker famously said . . . I like to have a martini, two at the very most.  After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host.