006 – Dry Martini

A ‘lock-down’ re-discovery of the famous Dry Martini cocktail from the mid-to-late 1800’s.

Sydney’s Covid Lockdown has inspired me to take this simple cocktail back to its roots and make it in the most classic way I know how. Here is the resulting recipe and some background.

Make your own ‘Locktail’ Dry Martini. Here is the recipe:

METHOD — Chill glassware. Prepare garnish of one or three green olives and keep brine if you prefer a ‘dirty’ Martini. Mix 60ml Gin (The Botanist) and 15ml Vermouth (Dolin ‘Blanc’) in a mixing glass with ice until very cold. Strain into glass, garnish with olives (option to add olive brine) and squeeze lemon skin for a coating of lemon zest oil. Serve immediately – the colder the better.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The ‘Dry Martini’ is another inclusion in the International Bartenders Association (IBA) classic ‘Unforgettables’ list that is limited to 33-cocktails. The origin is clouded and what seems likely is that it was a variant of the Martinez Cocktail that dates back to the Californian Gold-rush in the 1850’s. The first reliable account, is in the 1887 manual of famous bartender Jerry Thomas, of the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco. What is clear is that Dry Martini’s were around in the late nineteenth century and exploded in the twentieth, helped along by Ian Fleming’s own drinking preferences and his famous character James Bond 007.

The original ‘Martini’s’ were Gin-based drinks, although somehow Vodka has exerted a claim over them. Many contemporary Martini’s are Vodka based, mostly to avoid flavour clashes with sweet ingredients. For plain Martini mixes, there is no doubt that Gin holds claim to this Cocktail. The ratio of Vermouth has changed dramatically over time, and drier Martini’s have less Vermouth, often just a ‘wash of the glass’. The heart of a Dry Martini is in the selected Gin and its flavour profile.

When we get into the largely James Bond introduced penchant for shaken Martini’s, we are in for great theatrics but little logic. Shaking is essential for mixing ingredients that need to be broken down or forced together, and that is certainly not the case with a Dry Martini. The price we pay for ‘shaking’ is invisibility of the mix, less control over temperature, brutality or bruising of ingredients and stray ice-flakes. The flare is not required for the taste, and there are solid arguments that ‘stirred’ white-spirit Martini’s are superior or at least equal to James Bond’s (Ian Flemming’s) famous Cocktail phrase legacy – the shaken Martini.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The IBA ‘Dry Martini’ version is here. It is 60ml Gin and 10ml Dry Vermouth. Garnished with lemon oil and optional green olives.

TASTING NOTES – The ‘Dry Martini’ is a celebration of your favorite Gin (or Vodka, if you must lean that way). This is a cold, clear, refreshing and tart cocktail that really says you are drinking alcohol. It is great by itself, with Oysters or other seafood, but at its best when it is cold, cold, cold.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – I have made this sixth Sydney Covid Lockdown Cocktail – Locktail – a homage to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and a celebration of simpler cocktails. I have selected to use ‘The Botanist’ Gin from the Isle of Islay in Scotland. From the home of peat-rich Scotch Whiskies, this Dry Gin is rich with cold-climate, salty and sea-side botanicals, 22 of them in fact, great for drinks like the Dry Martini that hero the Gin. I have used Dolin’s ‘Blanc’ Vermouth for its colour (that is no colour) and a combination of dry and sweet. I have also kept the lemon oil and green olives, without making it too ‘dirty’. Although for me a splash of Olive brine is de rigueur and the extra saltiness really connects with the Botanist Gin’s origins and flavour profile.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

Coming up soon, more cocktails from the 1800s – the forward list is here. Or take a look at the previous ones, the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, the Jimmy McCollins, the Americano and the Sazerac.