1. Lose the extraneous apostrophe. 2. Realize that Gin is an aromatic, and should be kept at room temperature. 3. There should always be an odd number of olives. One’s not enough. Three is perfect.

I enjoyed the article and wanted to add a couple of small points.

1. If you ever go to London there is only one place for a martini, Duke’s hotel where the gin is generally Beefeater 24 (but anything is available) and the olives and lemons are flown in from Puglia, Italy. See Aessandro – p.s. it’s bloody hard to find!
Ian Fleming went there all the time, so it was good enough for Bond. Sadly they will not let you have more than two. As a variation on the classic you can order a Vespa which used Lillet instead of vermouth. It’s all made before you on a silver tray on top of a specialised trolley with compartments. The olives look like small hand grenades and are served on the side and taste amazing.

2. Ice – it’s fine to keep everything appropriately clean and in the freezer, from ingredients (save the vermouth) to implements but your martini will be ruined if you have bad ice. It’s essential to make sure that the ice is recently made on the day and from good water – anything else is a schoolboy error. Also, personally, I like to keep only the martini glasses frozen as i like the gin and mixer at room temperature to ensure the ice melts a little further – but Alessandro at Duke’s makes it with very cold gin so I may be making an error at home.

3. London Gins and London Dry Gins are all very well (I do love Hendricks) but for the “Perfect Martini” Plymouth is widely recognised as the gin that commands the vermouth’s respect – the blend of Seville orange and lemon peel give clear refreshing citrus notes that are punctuated by a peppery coriander and he orris and angelica root gives a long dry finish that never becomes bitter. The juniper berries don’t clobber the drink as they do in other gins like Gordans or Bombay (which make great gin and tonics but lousy martinis) but give the over all taste a creamy floral texture that marries well with the citrus. For this reason I think it’s also infinitely better to serve the Plymouth martini with a twist of fresh organic lemon peel that has been run around the rim and to bend an extra piece of fresh lemon peel over the drink so that the oil squirts over the surface.

I can imagine that several of you may take exception to my comments regarding the gin to use and that’s totally fine. Periodically I branch out (exciting to see Tanqueray is re-launching) but Plymouth’s art deco bottle stands head and shoulders above the rest for me!

And, of course, it has to be dry vermouth. Noilly Prat is my brand, in the newly-restored classic formulation. “Perfect” martini is in fact a misnomer, as the word perfect refers to a cocktail made with half dry and half sweet vermouth. Not that that isn’t a very intersting drink and worth trying.

The “capful to three ounces” would be fine, about 8 to 1, I guess, except for the part about pouring out the vermouth as soon as it’s coated the ice cubes. What on earth is the point of that supposed to be? You want six drops of vermouth in the drink, put six drops of vermouth in it. But I think that kind of misses the point. I have found through much experimentation that 3:1 or maybe 4:1 is ideal for me. I have never understood the way people make such a show of how little vermouth they use. Vermouth is wonderful! Have some on the rocks with a lemon twist sometime. Great before dinner.

Striing yields a drink that’s smooth, rich and oily. Shaking produces one that is crisp, light and bracing. Both wonderful, although I prefer shaking. The only way to find your favorite is to test them both.

Also, I tend to make mine somewhat larger. Take the bottle of Kettle One, or Saphire, a large shaker, filled with ice. Turn the bottle upside down, count to 4, maybe 5 depends on how fast you count. Sake, stir, swirl, really it matters not, the booze tends to breath better when you shake, just like the head on a freashly poured glass of beer. Let sit about 30 seconds, add olives, no lemon beels, the only drink worthy of a lemon peel is a rob roy. Find a good sized martini glass and proceed at your own risk.

Good luck to all the snoobs who debate gin or vodka, just enjopy your martini in the company of good people and all is right with the world.

I too love the combination Pint + Shot, which is commonly referred to as a Boilermaker.

As well as a good Dirty Martini and Vodka Gibson.
JD on the rocks? These days I have been taken by Bulleit Bourbon on the rocks. High on rye, no phenol alcohol.

To each his own, eh Charlie?

My only quibble is that he left out the world’s greatest authority on cocktails when he discussed stirring and/or shaking. William Powell as Nic Charles in The Thin Man says:

“The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time. “

My personal preference is about 3 to 1 of gin to dry vermouth. I do however like a lot of lemon with mine. I also sometimes take mine with vodka.
As has been said here several times, how one takes one’s Martini is a highly personal thing. I prefer to drink mine whilst smoking a full flavoured Havana cigar (Partagas / Cohiba / Montecristo etc)