Martini (Turf Club)

This twist on a Martini undergoes additional twisting here as I prefer to use triple sec (Cointreau) to the Maraschino liqueur generally demanded. 

Turf Club Martini

2 oz Old Tom Gin (classic London dry gin also works)
0.75 oz Dry Vermouth
0.25 oz triple sec
2 dashes orange bitters
1 drop MSG and salt solution
Absinthe rinse
Olives for garnish.

Spritz a chilled Nick and Nora glassa with Absinthe. Stir the remaining ingredients with ice and strain into the glass. Add olives.

If you have space, try pre-mixing a batch and keeping a bottle in the freezer for always-on ice-cold martini needs.

Blood & Sand

I don't generally go for sweet cocktails, but just occasionally they're so well constructed that the sweetness seems appropriate. Even more occasionally, they involve Scotch whisky too - fetch me my cocktail shaker!

The Blood & Sand, which I tasted for the first time at The Player a few months back, was created for the premiere of the 1922 movie of the same name - a bullfighter-romance starring Rudolf Valentino. That's the story, now the recipe.

Blood & Sand

22.5ml (0.75oz) Scotch whisky
22.5ml (0.75oz) orange juice
22.5ml (0.75oz) sweet vermouth
22.5ml (0.75oz) cherry brandy liqueur

 Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Double strain into a chilled martini glass.

For the Scotch, I picked Bailie Nicol Jarvie, a fine blend and perfect for cocktails, while for the cherry brandy-based liqueur I used De Kuyper (24% abv), although I keep reading that the slightly dearer Cherry Heering is best. I've also heard it suggested, repeatedly, that modern tastes might prefer less of the sweet stuff, with an ounce each of the whisky and orange and 3/4 ounces each of vermouth and cherry. I tried this and, sure, it's slightly Scotchier, and maybe more refined. But I still like the original - sublimely sweet and quite moreish.

Buy Bailie Nicol Jarvie from The Drink Shop here. Don't forget the sweet vermouth and the cherry brandy. I'll leave you to figure out the oranges.

Martini (1:1)

I've already dealt with the martini, here and here, but after trying the following recipe from David Wondrich's wonderful cocktail bible, Imbibe, I decided this one simply had to be blog-ed.

Dry Martini

45ml (1.5oz) gin
45ml (1.5oz) dry vermouth
Dash of orange bitters
Twist of orange peel

Pour ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir well and strain into a martini glass. Squeeze a piece of orange peel over the surface of the drink.

Observant observers will notice the interesting element here is the 1:1 proportion of G to V, rather than the more common 2:1 ratio (as seen here). To stand up to such a large slug of vermouth the gin should preferably be robust (Tanqueray or Beefeater is recommended). The vermouth called for is Noilly Prat.

Crucially, or at least interestingly, the "dry" in this dry martini denotes the use of dry (French) vermouth rather than the sweeter Italian sort, as traditionally used. It does not mean hardly any vermouth, which seems to be a modern tendency, like Pop Idol or grime music.

As Wondrich writes: "Mixed like this, with half gin and half vermouth and a dash of orange bitters, the Martini is an entirely different drink to the one we know... a gentleman among cocktails."

Dry Vermouth (Old & New)

Looking back on it, I'm not sure why I thought I could get away with keeping an opened bottle of dry vermouth in the cabinet for more than a year. I know that wine, once opened, starts to oxidize and can turn a little sour after just a few days. For some reason, though, I'd always assumed my trusty bottle of 21% vol Noilly Prat - essentially a fortified wine - would go on and on, tasting just right. I'd managed to make it last so long because I only ever use the stuff to make martinis - and even then I only use a small dose to balance the gin. The problem, partly related to the above, is I'd forgotten what fresh dry vermouth was supposed to taste like. In any case, I kept using it, until the bottle was nearly empty and I was ready to buy a new one. Then I read about an interesting taste test on top cocktail blog Oh Gosh! and decided to, well, copy the idea. Here follow my blind tasting notes for two bottles of Noilly Prat, the only difference being that one was 'aged' in the bottle for an extra year.

Old one (pictured on the left)

Colour: Dark gold or amber.
Aroma: Old, pungent, astringent, sweet apples. Off.
Taste: Bitter, strong, sour, in your face.

New one (on the right)
Colour: Light straw.
Aroma: Aromatic, of pear.
Taste: Complex, rich, strong, sweet, white wine, long finish.

The difference in taste was startling. The only way to make the old one tolerable, I realised, would be to smother it in gin - exactly what I'd been doing for the past few months. The new one tasted far more complex, giving me a long-forgotten sense of the 20 herbs and spices that go into making this concoction. It was a different drink altogether, and one I plan in future to enjoy - from the fridge - for no longer than 12 weeks at a time.

Martini (Hendrick's Gin)

It seems unnatural to have maintained a drinks blog for this many months without having made a single martini. This cocktail was a favourite of mine a while back, when my gin of choice was Plymouth. Having recently discovered Hendrick's, I thought I'd try out a recipe from that distiller's website, using a cucumber garnish rather than the usual olive or lemon twist. The result (pictured above) was ridiculously good. The debate over the most effective proportions of gin to dry vermouth will continue to rage, but I felt those recommended here (two parts G to one part V) worked just fine.

Martini

45ml (1.5oz) Hendrick's Gin

22.5ml (0.75oz) Noilly Prat dry vermouth
Slice of cucumber

Stir gin and vermouth over ice cubes in mixing glass. Strain into martini glass. Drop in a cucumber slice.

Manhattan (Revisited)

Although I've already posted on the Manhattan cocktail, I neglected to include the recipe, which follows here: 

Manhattan

60ml (2oz) Bourbon

20ml (0.7oz) Sweet vermouth

Two dashes Angostura bitters

Maraschino cherry to garnish

Pour bourbon, sweet vermouth and bitters into a mixing glass with ice. Stir for a good, long while before straining into an old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a cherry.

I've tried using rye whiskey instead of bourbon (too dry), and I've tried making a Perfect Manhattan, which replaces half the sweet vermouth with a dose of dry vermouth, but I still prefer the recipe above. It's sweet(ish), but in a rich, grown-up way. Definitely not for children.

Negroni

My first ever Negroni, way back in 2009, came in a pint glass and filled most of it. That may sound reckless now, in 2010, but at the time W and I were simply following these simple proportions: one part gin, one part sweet vermouth, one part Campari. The ratio, at least, was right, so memorise it forthwith if you haven't already. And remember this too: if it's an aperitif you're after, or a little stimulation in the afternoon, the Italian Negroni is your friend.

Here I used Plymouth gin, Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth (the red stuff) and, er, Campari. While some recipes call for a burnt orange garnish (instructions here if you're hard enough), I took the liberty of adding a couple of dashes of orange bitters instead, along with a conventional orange twist. Since it was February, in England, I served it simply chilled - off the rocks, as it were.

Negroni

15ml (0.5oz) gin

15ml (0.5oz) sweet vermouth

15ml (0.5oz) Campari

Two dashes orange bitters

Orange peel to garnish

Add ingredients to a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a small glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

The bitterness of the Campari ensures this little drink isn't for everyone, but then - what is? This was the first outing of my new bottle of Angostura orange bitters, and I loved what they did, providing a slightly sweet citrus twist and taking a little edge off the Campari, but not much. I believe W may have approved too, although come summer we may have to pull out the pint glasses again.

FACT! The Negroni was created in Florence in the 1920s when Count Camillo Negroni asked for a stronger version of the longer Americano (which was, and remains, sweet vermouth, Campari and soda water).

NEXT FACT! Tequila lovers should take a look at the Agavoni, which replaces the gin in the Negroni with silver tequila.