Preparation
Pouring all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes, the ingredients are mixed then strained and served "straight up" (without ice) in a chilled cocktail glass and garnished with either a green olive or a twist of lemon (a strip of the peel, usually squeezed or twisted to express volatile oils onto the surface of the drink). A martini may also be made on the rocks, that is, with the ingredients poured over ice cubes and served in an old-fashioned glass.
Although there are many variations, in modern practice the standard martini is a mix of gin coupled with dry vermouth usually in a five-to-one ratio. Shaker mixing is common due to influences of popular culture, notably the fictional spy James Bond, who sometimes asked for his vodka martini to be "shaken, not stirred". However, stirring has a long history. Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) prescribes stirring for all its martini recipes. Somerset Maugham's opinion was that "a Martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another".
Noël Coward suggested that a perfect martini should be made by "filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy" (which along with France is a major producer of vermouth). Luis Buñuel considered it enough to hold up a glass of gin next to a bottle of vermouth and let a beam of sunlight pass through. Winston Churchill was said to whisper the word 'Vermouth' to a freshly poured glass of gin. Dorothy Parker expressed her opinion: "I like to have a martini/two at the very most./Three, I'm under the table./Four, I'm under my host".
The martini was originally made with sweet vermouth. A person who wanted a "dry martini" asked for one made with white vermouth. Until World War II the standard proportion was 1 part vermouth to 3 to 3 ½ parts gin. These days the dryness of a martini refers to the amount of vermouth used in the drink, with a very dry martini having little or none. Conversely, a wet martini has a significant amount of vermouth added.
A dirty martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.
If you prefer cocktail onion (on skewer) instead of olives in your martini, you would order a Gibson. Other people bypass the gin completely and use vodka instead, creating a kangaroo cocktail, or "vodka martini".
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