Like most classic cocktails, the history of the Martini is as just as murky as the best made Dirty Martini can get. There are various theories about its origins but of course, none are universally accepted.
Some claim the drink was, in fact, invented in San Francisco, after a miner requested a pick-me-up in the city on his way to Martinez. (Many believe the Martinez to be the precursor to the Martini).
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There are also assertions that it originated in New York’s Knickerbocker Hotel (there was an Italian immigrant bartender called Martini di Arma di Taggia working there who claimed to invent the drink before World War 1).
Still, others assert that the drink was named after “Martini & Rossi” vermouth, which was first created in the mid-1800s.
Now while you might think the number of theories as to the cocktail’s origins is high, it’s nothing when compared to the sum of recipes and versions of the drink.
A traditional martini contains gin and dry vermouth served extremely cold with a green olive or lemon garnish — the additional ingredients from the earliest version were quickly abandoned.
A “dry” martini contains less vermouth, while a “dirty” one includes dashes of olive brine. When vodka replaces the gin, it’s known as a “kangaroo,” and a “Gibson” swaps the olive for a cocktail onion.
James Bond favours the “Vesper,” made with gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet vermouth, garnished with a twist of lemon peel.
A martini “on the rocks” is served over ice as opposed to being strained into a cocktail glass, and “with a twist” refers to the addition of a thin piece of citrus peel, often shaped into a decorative curlicue.
And as any Bond fan (or person with a modicum of pop culture knowledge) will know, 007’s drink of choice is “shaken, not stirred,” although Martinis should really be stirred instead of shaken.
If you order a Churchill Martini, you’ll end up with a glassful of gin. Churchill famously said the only way to make a martini was with ice-cold gin and a bow in the direction of France.
Ernest Hemingway favoured the Montgomery – 15 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. 15:1 is said to be the ratio Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery preferred when going into battle.
Lyndon B. Johnson liked the in-and-out martini – a glass filled with vermouth then dumped out and filled with gin.
Alfred Hitchcock and Winston Churchill had the same idea – Hitch said the closest he wanted to get to a bottle of vermouth was looking at it from across the room. That quote is often attributed to Churchill, actually, but the Washington Post says otherwise… Churchill is misquoted all of the time, so I’m inclined to believe them.
Clark Gable’s character in the 1958 movie Teacher’s Pet likes to take the bottle of vermouth, tip it upside down so the liquid wets the cork, and then run the damp cork around the lip of the martini glass.
FDR absolutely loved martinis and is rumoured to have carried a “martini kit” with him wherever he went. His recipe was two parts gin, one part vermouth, some olive brine, a lemon twist and an olive. He insisted on mixing his concoction for Stalin at the Teheran conference. Stalin found it “cold on the stomach” but tasty.
Julia Child preferred reverse martinis: a glass full of vermouth on the rocks (she liked Noilly Prat) with a topper of gin. She said she could easily down two of those.
Even the history of the Martini glass is muddied in confusion. One popular story is that the wide rim of the glass was invented during US Prohibition, the theory being that in case police raided your speakeasy, you could quickly discard the drink without being caught.
And then came the ‘80s, with its oh-so-unfortunate trend of calling every cocktail a martini—or, even worse, simply a ‘tini. Too many of these cocktails were heavy on the flavoured vodkas and gross, sugary fruit liqueurs. We’re happy to relegate them to the dustbins of history.
But it doesn’t matter how you choose to have your martini, as long as you have one. After all, it is the most famous of the cocktails and at one stage probably the last classic cocktail left standing. It has endured through and lived on to see a better age.
