The Martini

Ok, the very last request. This one came in late and in secret from Teri. Actually, there's nothing covert about it...she just missed the post request I had originally used to get them and sent me an email request. The subject? The Martini...

Unless you are a monk that lives here you would know that a martini is an alcohol cocktail that is made from either gin or vodka and contains some kind of vermouth. See, already we need a definitions section:

Cocktail – Well now; mine certainly never had a tail. No, bring your mind out of the gutter people; I’m referring to the fowl, not anatomy. Not that I’ve owned a fowl though. A cocktail is simply a mixed drink using alcohol.

Vermouth – No, this isn’t a Russian referring to their mouth. This is a special fortified wine that can be sweet or not. I have no idea why they came up with this. Apparently the recipes are closely guarded. Think Coca-Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken…

The drink goes back to the just after the Civil war and was primarily a gin concoction that contained a cherry. It became popular with celebrities of all kinds and the cherry made way for the olive later on.

Probably the most famous association to a martini was James Bond’s vodka martini “shaken, not stirred”. Of course, Bond was a bit more ruthless than many of the movies give him credit. He was actually misquoted. He was really speaking to a fellow agent in regards to an adversary: “Would ya drag Martini on the rocks until he’s shaken, understand?” to which the slightly hard of hearing bartender then made him his famous drink.

As to shaken vs stirred, supposedly adding air bubbles from shaking makes this a more healthy drink. That’s a little like putting whole wheat in a twinkie and calling it more healthy. But I digress…

Martini’s were popular with high society and then ultimately became a drink of choice for business people having lunch hence the “3 martini lunch”. But by the 70s people were doing crazy things like drinking Annie Greenspring and Wine Coolers and their popularity waned.

Switching more to vodka and then introducing various other ingredients brought the drink back into popularity in the late 1980s and it’s been that way ever since. Not everyone would agree with all the novelties the martini drink is being used for though.

There are a bazillion names for various martini concoctions out there. It seems that every drink must have a fancy name. Somewhere along the way we went from “Whiskey” to “Sex on the Beach”. I think back in the old west the only place you could order Sex on the Beach would be a brothel on the California coast!

I don’t really know where the concoctions of martini varieties will end. I’m sure somewhere you can get a vodka martini with prune juice and a baby dill pickle stuck in it! And that is just wrong!

Now a dirty martini might sound either like they didn’t take the time to wash out the glass it came in or they’ve added something I don’t even want to mention to the mixture but in reality it is simply put an olive brine either in place of the vermouth. Now I have no idea why you’d want an olive brine but there you have it. I guess given enough of any drink I’d probably start to see the logic of using a brine…

Perhaps the other most famous reference to martinis come from MASH. That’s what Hawkeye and Trapper John were making in their tent. Well; other than the nurses that is…

Yes, the martini will probably always be one of the most recognized and popular drinks out there.