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The perfect martini?

Last night Dr T and I enjoyed a cultural night out at Nottingham Playhouse to see their production of Blithe Spirit. From this one would deduce that essential kit in many households of the time was a cocktail shaker and a ready supply of martini glasses!

There was a long debate on the way home as to exactly what made up a dry martini, although both of us were quite sure it bore no resemblance to the dry martini and lemonade beloved of our parent’s generation. And the answer seems to be there is no one recipe for the “perfect” dry martini.

There is much agreement that you need the right equipment, and ice. There must be ice and apparently not any old ice. No to tap water ice, but am assuming filtered or best Evian would be ok! And of course it’s not going to taste as smooth if you use Tesco’s Basics Gin or Vermouth rather than a more premium spirit.

So that brings us to the recipe: gin meets vermouth, end of.

Or rather the start of endless combinations. For a dry one, it would appear to four parts gin to one part dry vermouth might be a good starting point. Shaken together over ice then strained into a martini glass.

The extra dry martini could be 12 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth, and one source quotes the perfect martini as 4 parts gin, 1 part dry vermouth and 1 part sweet vermouth. You could garnish it with everything from olives to cocktail onions to slivers of orange or lemon peel.

But really, it’s all about the spirits. And we’re not talking about the ghosts of either Mrs Condimine. According to the World Spirit’s Festival in January, the best gin in the world was Blackwoods’ Vintage Dry Gin. It certainly sounds like it would be perfect for the job, and also wouldn’t just taste like neat alcohol due to the mix of local botanical ingredients from the Shetlands.

I have to be honest, I’ve never tried it, but I guess could be persuaded to give it a go. My personal favourites in the gin department are Plymouth, Bombay Sapphire or Hendricks, although not sure how purists in the martini field would view the cucumber note in the Hendricks. Personally I think it would be a great addition.

Vermouth really seems to come down to a choice between Martini and Noilly Prat, and given that it’s called a Martini, I might be tempted to plump for that. Although if the bottle looked nice, I might go for the Noilly Prat. Or both.

And then you need good glasses to serve it in. Which seem to be everywhere in recent times, but if you think you’re going to develop a taste for these then frame good liquor with good glass. I like the simplicity of the ones from LSA, which are classy and unfussy, pure of line, which is what a good martini should be.

So, my darlings, I’m going to waft off now and dress for dinner and wait to be shaken, not stirred!

Fabulous photographs courtesy of Mustard Faith on Flickr

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