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While variations are legion, a standard modern martini is made by combining approximately two and a half ounces of Gin and one half ounce of dry Vermouth with Ice in a Cocktail Shaker or mixing glass. The ingredients are chilled, either by stirring or shaking, then strained and served "straight up" (without ice) in a chilled Cocktail Glass , and garnished with either an Olive or a twist (a strip of Lemon peel, usually squeezed or twisted to express volatile citric oils onto the surface of the drink). Caper s or cocktail Onion s are sometimes used as substitute garnishes. An onion-garnished martini is properly known as a Gibson as it was created by Charles Dana Gibson , a "Life" illustrator famous for his "Gibson Girl" illustrations. While the standard martini may call for a 5:1 ratio of distilled spirits to wine, many aficionados may reduce the proportion of vermouth drastically. This gave rise to stories such as martinis being made by just passing the cork of the vermouth above the glass, along with similar conceits about how little vermouth, i.e., how "dry," one's martinis are.(see history below) Another common but controversial variation is the vodka martini, which is prepared in exactly the same way as a standard martini, with vodka being substituted for gin as the base spirit. In the 1990s , the vodka martini supplanted the traditional gin-based martini in popularity. Today, when bar and restaurant customers order "a martini," they frequently have in mind a drink made with vodka. Martini purists decry this development: while few object to the drink itself, they strenuously object to it being called "a martini." The martini, they insist, is a gin-based cocktail; this variation should be designated as such, with the name "vodka martini" (it may also be called a "vodkatini" or a "kangaroo"). HISTORY OF THE DRINK The origin of the martini is uncertain. By one widely accepted account, the martini is a descendant of the Martinez, an older, sweeter, but similar cocktail, which consists of (approximately) two ounces of sweet vermouth, one ounce gin (specifically, Old Tom gin, a sweetened variant), two dashes Maraschino Cherry liquid, and one dash Bitters , shaken with ice, strained, and served with a twist of lemon. The Martinez purportedly originated in California in the 1870s , probably either in San Francisco or in the town of Martinez . Some versions of this account are more specific, crediting the Martinez to Jerry Thomas, a famous and influential 19th Century bartender working the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco in the late 1850s or 1860s . In the book, ''The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them'', copyright 1907 , written by William T. Boothby, the recipe for Dry Martini Cocktail (à la Charlie Shaw, Los Angeles , Cal) instructs, "into a mixing glass place some cracked ice, two dashes of Orange bitters, half a jigger of (dry) French vermouth, and half a jigger of dry English gin. Stir well until thoroughly chilled, strain into a stem cocktail-glass, squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the top and serve with an olive." Other than the bitters and the ratio of vermouth to gin, this is remarkably similar to a modern martini cocktail. The reference to California is consistent, but other early martini history cites San Francisco rather than Los Angeles. William Grimes, restaurant critic for the '', in New York , in 1912 . The fact that numerous published references to the martini predate 1912 discounts this theory. The martini was an established American cocktail at the beginning of the 20th Century , but did not attain its pre-eminent status as the classic cocktail until later in the century. Perhaps paradoxically, Prohibition did a great deal to elevate the martini's stature. Americans' preferred tipple at that time -- Whiskey -- requires skillful blending and long aging, whereas cheap but (marginally) drinkable " Bathtub Gin " is relatively easy to produce, so martinis were more readily available in the era of the Speakeasy . The Prohibition-era martini was quite "wet" by today's standards. With the repeal of Prohibition, and the ready availability of quality gin, the drink became progressively dryer. (A "dry" martini is one with relatively little vermouth. One might say that a "very dry" martini is essentially a glass of cold gin, though the ice will contribute some water to the final drink.) This trend toward dryness eventually reached fetishistic extremes, and became the source of a considerable body of martini anecdotes, wit, and lore. One might prepare a martini by waving the cap of a vermouth bottle over the glass, or observing that "there was vermouth in the house once." wanted to have before going into battle). In a classic bit of stage business in the 1955 play '' Auntie Mame '' sophisticated pre-adolescent Patrick Dennis offers a martini, which he prepares by swirling a drop of vermouth in the glass, then tossing it out before filling the glass with gin. Similarly, in the 1958 movie '' Teacher's Pet '', Clark Gable mixes a martini by turning the bottle of vermouth upside-down before running the moistened cork around the rim of the glass and filling it with gin. Surrealist director Luis Buñuel was another supporter of the drink, including his personal recipe into his Oscar-winning 1972 film Le Charme Discret De La Bourgeoisie and in his memoires, which consists basically of " Coating The Cubes ", a method of adding the flavor of vermouth by pouring the vermouth in separately then pouring it out before pouring in the gin. Also, Atomizers similar to those used for Perfume were sometimes used to dispense a token amount of vermouth. The martini's popularity waned in the health-conscious, martini, the Chocolate martini, and so forth. Whether the more extreme variations of this era may truly be called martinis remains a topic of vigorous debate. The first reference to a vodka martini in the United States occurs in the 1951 cocktail book ''Bottoms Up'' by Ted Saucier. The recipe is credited to celebrity photographer Jerome Zerbe . MARTINI LORE AND MIXOLOGY Western culture has created a virtual mythology around the martini, in part because of the many legendary historical and fictional figures who favoured it. Churchill , F. Scott Fitzgerald , Hemingway , Cary Grant and the fictional James Bond among them. The dry martini is also sometimes called "The Silver Bullet" (rarely used today) because it "is clear, potent and never misses its mark". The classic martini of yore was stirred, "so as not to bruise the gin." W. Somerset Maugham declared that "Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other," while James Bond from the Ian Fleming novels ordered his " Shaken, Not Stirred ", a drink properly called a ''Bradford''. In the novel '' Casino Royale '', Bond's recipe is specified in more detail as made with three measures of gin (Gordon's was Bond's preference), one measure of vodka (Russian or Polish is preferred), and half a measure of Kina Lillet aperitif, shaken until ice-cold, and with a large, thin slice of lemon peel for garnish (properly called a "Vesper" after his love interest in the book). By the second Bond novel, '' Live And Let Die '', Bond was drinking vodka martinis, a trend that continued when 007 moved to the screen in 1962. The concept of "bruising the gin" as a result of shaking a martini is an oft-debated topic. A shaken martini is different from stirred for a few reasons. The shaking action breaks up the ice and adds more water, slightly weakening the drink but also altering the taste. Some would say the shaken martini has a "more rounded" taste. Others, usually citing hard-to-track-down scientific studies, say that shaking causes more of a certain class of molecules (aldehydes) to bond with oxygen, resulting in a "sharper" taste. Shaking also adds tiny air bubbles, which can lead to a cloudy drink instead of clear. Some martini devotees believe the vermouth is more evenly distributed by shaking, which can alter the flavor and texture of the beverage as well. In some places, a shaken martini is referred to as a "Martini James Bond". Although Charles Dana Gibson is most likely responsible for the creation of the Gibson martini (where a pickled onion serves as the garnish), the details are debated and several alternate stories exist. In one story, Gibson challenged Charley Connolly, the bartender of the Players' Club in New York City, to improve upon the martini's recipe, so Mr. Connolly simply substituted the olive with an onion and named the drink after the patron. Other stories involve different Gibsons, such as an apocryphal American diplomat who served in Europe during Prohibition . Although he was a Teetotaller , he often had to attend receptions where cocktails were served. To avoid an awkward situation, Gibson would ask the staff to fill his martini glass with cold water and garnish it with a small onion so that he could pick it out among the gin drinks. The martini has become a symbol for cocktails and Nightlife in general; American bars often have a picture of a conical martini glass with an olive on their signs. In ''Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail'', Lowell Edmunds, a classics professor and doyen of martini lore, analyzes the cocktail's symbolic potency in considerable depth. OVER THE YEARS Although the original Russian Vodka Martini is still popular, colorful, flavored vodka martinis are rapidly becoming the trend of new drinkers, as well as the vodka veterans. Unlike gin, vodka has a neutral flavor which allows it to easily mix with other flavors to make a wide variety of flavored martinis. New specialty martinis are being made everyday, using many different combinations of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, splashes of cream, and brightly colored liqueurs. Instead of the typical cocktail olive, cocktail onion, or lemon twist, unique garnishes are being used in the new flavored martinis. Some of these garnishes are marinated capers, fresh herbs, or olives stuffed with blue cheese, anchovies, or sun-dried tomatoes. MARTINI IN POPULAR CULTURE
The vodka martini is the drink of choice of James Bond . He prefers his " Shaken, Not Stirred ." MARTINI VARIATIONS Many variations exist on the standard martini described above.
There are literally thousands of additional variants. Sometimes the term "martini" is used to refer to other mostly-hard-liquor cocktails such as Manhattans , Cosmopolitans , and ad-hoc or local concoctions whose only commonality with the drink is the cocktail glass in which they are served. Chefs with a more whimsical bent are even producing dessert "martinis" which are not a drink at all, but are merely served in Martini Glass es. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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