Exposing poseur-tinis
Shaken, not stirred. The history behind the Martini and the imposters that flood the fashionable cocktail market.
The cocktail world is no longer safe as a growing gang of con artists has infiltrated it.
All unique in design, comprised of different liquors, liqueurs and garnishes but all of them misnamed, misnomers and missing dry vermouth. Do not be fooled by their delicious and colourful nature, these mixed drinks are nothing but two-bit frauds in cocktail glasses.
From the Appletini to the Mojitotini, these alcoholic imposters have spilt into popular culture via Sex and the City and haute couture bar menus and are taking over.
To understand why the adult-beverage world has become overrun with lying liquor, we must first look to a small Italian village called Turin. It was there that a man named Antonio Benedetto Carpano first covered-up the flavour of cheap wine by fortifying it with a certain blend of spices, and thus inventing vermouth.
Though many distilleries today produce and sell vermouth (both dry/white and sweet/red) the most highly distributed and recognizable brand has always been Martini& Rossi (just Martini in North America). As for the cocktail itself, the origins are harder to trace.
Some believe that the Martini is a derivative of the earlier cocktail called a Martinez, which is made with sweet vermouth, sweet gin and cherry juice. In fact, a plaque commemorating the birthplace of the Martini stands at the intersection of Alhambra and Green in Martinez, California. However, there is a man by the name of Jerry Thomas who claimed to have invented the drink in 1882 at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco for a customer who needed to take off the edge in the morning on his way to Martinez. Still others believe that the Martini was not derived of the Martinez, but was actually invented spontaneously by a man named William Boothby, who published the first recipe for a Martini in his book The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them in 1907 and may have named the cocktail after the favoured brand of its key ingredient — Martini & Rossi dry white vermouth. Despite early, not to mention sordid beginnings, the Martini did not make its way into American culture until prohibition in the 20's and 30's.
Before America's dry-spell, the preferred drink and ingredient for cocktails was whisky (or as the American's would have it “whiskey”). Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Rob Roys and the highball reigned supreme. But when distilling had to go underground it was discovered that bootlegged whisky was hard to make and consequently not very good. Bathtub gin became the preferred Speak Easy speed-rail staple, and thus, the Martini became the preferred cocktail.
Made with gin or vodka, olive, twist or onion, served shaken, stirred, dry, really dry, dirty or naked, the Martini's exact recipe is another convoluted part of its history. The standard today is 5:1 ratio of gin/vodka to dry vermouth; the rest appears to be dealer's choice.
Though 007 wouldn't agree many aficionados believe that shaking a Martini “bruises” the delicate flavour of the vermouth. For those who have had the experience of drinking dry vermouth straight-up, you may wonder how anyone could call the flavour delicate. You are not alone.
It has been suggested that to get the exact right amount of vermouth in a martini one must simply walk the cocktail briskly through a room that contains an open bottle of the fortified wine. Winston Churchill preferred his far dryer, insisting that merely looking at a sealed bottle of vermouth while drinking a Martini was more than enough.
There is no denying that dry vermouth is, well, kind of gross. But, it puts the “tini” in Martini and is therefore essential to the recipe. So what's with all the conspicuously vermouth-free cocktails masquerading as Martinis?
Though drinking a Martini puts you in terrific company, (some of the most notable suave-swigglers of the so-called Silver Bullet cocktail include the likes of Hemingway, Churchill, Cary Grant and Nikita Khrushchev) I doubt the inventors of the poseur-tinis took this into consideration when developing them. Rather, I would suggest the charade is merely a matter of mistaken glassware identity.
Despite vast opinion otherwise, the glass in which a Martini is served is not called a “Martini Glass.” Yes, it's true that the iconic cup in question is most often associated with a Martini it is actually called a “Cocktail Glass.” A classic case of misguided mixology turned pop-culture epidemic.
With this newfound information in hand, I urge my readers to ignore the foppishly froufrou fake-tinis and opt instead for a classic Martini — stirred, dry as a bone and extra dirty. Cheers!
The cocktail world is no longer safe as a growing gang of con artists has infiltrated it.
All unique in design, comprised of different liquors, liqueurs and garnishes but all of them misnamed, misnomers and missing dry vermouth. Do not be fooled by their delicious and colourful nature, these mixed drinks are nothing but two-bit frauds in cocktail glasses.
From the Appletini to the Mojitotini, these alcoholic imposters have spilt into popular culture via Sex and the City and haute couture bar menus and are taking over.
To understand why the adult-beverage world has become overrun with lying liquor, we must first look to a small Italian village called Turin. It was there that a man named Antonio Benedetto Carpano first covered-up the flavour of cheap wine by fortifying it with a certain blend of spices, and thus inventing vermouth.
Though many distilleries today produce and sell vermouth (both dry/white and sweet/red) the most highly distributed and recognizable brand has always been Martini& Rossi (just Martini in North America). As for the cocktail itself, the origins are harder to trace.
Some believe that the Martini is a derivative of the earlier cocktail called a Martinez, which is made with sweet vermouth, sweet gin and cherry juice. In fact, a plaque commemorating the birthplace of the Martini stands at the intersection of Alhambra and Green in Martinez, California. However, there is a man by the name of Jerry Thomas who claimed to have invented the drink in 1882 at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco for a customer who needed to take off the edge in the morning on his way to Martinez. Still others believe that the Martini was not derived of the Martinez, but was actually invented spontaneously by a man named William Boothby, who published the first recipe for a Martini in his book The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them in 1907 and may have named the cocktail after the favoured brand of its key ingredient — Martini & Rossi dry white vermouth. Despite early, not to mention sordid beginnings, the Martini did not make its way into American culture until prohibition in the 20's and 30's.
Before America's dry-spell, the preferred drink and ingredient for cocktails was whisky (or as the American's would have it “whiskey”). Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Rob Roys and the highball reigned supreme. But when distilling had to go underground it was discovered that bootlegged whisky was hard to make and consequently not very good. Bathtub gin became the preferred Speak Easy speed-rail staple, and thus, the Martini became the preferred cocktail.
Made with gin or vodka, olive, twist or onion, served shaken, stirred, dry, really dry, dirty or naked, the Martini's exact recipe is another convoluted part of its history. The standard today is 5:1 ratio of gin/vodka to dry vermouth; the rest appears to be dealer's choice.
Though 007 wouldn't agree many aficionados believe that shaking a Martini “bruises” the delicate flavour of the vermouth. For those who have had the experience of drinking dry vermouth straight-up, you may wonder how anyone could call the flavour delicate. You are not alone.
It has been suggested that to get the exact right amount of vermouth in a martini one must simply walk the cocktail briskly through a room that contains an open bottle of the fortified wine. Winston Churchill preferred his far dryer, insisting that merely looking at a sealed bottle of vermouth while drinking a Martini was more than enough.
There is no denying that dry vermouth is, well, kind of gross. But, it puts the “tini” in Martini and is therefore essential to the recipe. So what's with all the conspicuously vermouth-free cocktails masquerading as Martinis?
Though drinking a Martini puts you in terrific company, (some of the most notable suave-swigglers of the so-called Silver Bullet cocktail include the likes of Hemingway, Churchill, Cary Grant and Nikita Khrushchev) I doubt the inventors of the poseur-tinis took this into consideration when developing them. Rather, I would suggest the charade is merely a matter of mistaken glassware identity.
Despite vast opinion otherwise, the glass in which a Martini is served is not called a “Martini Glass.” Yes, it's true that the iconic cup in question is most often associated with a Martini it is actually called a “Cocktail Glass.” A classic case of misguided mixology turned pop-culture epidemic.
With this newfound information in hand, I urge my readers to ignore the foppishly froufrou fake-tinis and opt instead for a classic Martini — stirred, dry as a bone and extra dirty. Cheers!
