Home » Food and Drinks »  Cocktails & Mocktails »  Martini Anyone The Martini is the quintessential cocktail - pure, cold, dry and elegant. An American creation, Martini dates back to the nineteenth century when, according to one version, a bartender in San Francisco mixed half sweet gin, half sweet vermouth for a traveller on his way to nearby Martinez. From this sweet drink, the dry Martini was born.

By the end of World War II, the martini was a mix of two ounces dry gin, one ounce dry vermouth. From then onwards, the distance between ingredients lengthened with the ratio of gin going up and vermouth moving down to a half ounce, a drop and finally to a whiff.

Along with passion over proportions, there were the technicalities of mixing. Some devotees declared that lemon peel in a martini was heresy, while James Bond decreed that it must be "shaken, not stirred".

Purists were themselves shaken when Vodka became a fashionable substitute in the 1970s and began to nuzzle its way and substitute the Martini. It was Vodka's taste-free neutrality that made it so easily adaptable, although, as one Russian explained, "vodka is not tasteless: it merely lacks flavour".

How to Make a Martini

The important thing to remember is no two ways of making a martini will be identical. Each person adds a different twist to the drink. It's all a question of personal taste.
But the way to make an acceptable martini is fairly straightforward. And of course, a variation could always be introduced.

You will need:

Gin, Dry Vermouth, big ice cubes, a cocktail shaker, strainer, and martini glasses. Either lemon peel, a slice of lemon, an olive or even a pickled onion will be needed to garnish the drink.

Method:

• 1. The martini glasses, cocktail shaker, and the gin need to be pre-chilled. The dry vermouth shouldn't be cooled.
• 2. Put 4 or 5 cubes of ice into a cocktail shaker. Add 3 parts of gin and 1 part of dry vermouth to it.
• 3. Shake well for 15 seconds. Rather than shaking it up and down, use a back and forth action.
• 4. Pour the liquid into the chilled martini glasses, using a cocktail.
• 5.Garnish with a strip of lemon peel or a slice of lime or an olive. Some people prefer a pickled onion.
• 6. Martini glasses are long stemmed, wide mouthed glasses.
• 7. Sometimes crushed ice is used instead of cubes, but some believe this dilutes the drink too much.
• 8. Martinis should be served very cold, almost on the point of freezing. Remove the glasses from the refrigerator just before you pour the drink into them.
• 9. If you prefer a dry martini, use less vermouth.