You Say Martigny, I Say Martuni .... The Famous Martini Cocktail

Ah, the Martini: It is the cocktail in a v-shaped glass, flashing in neon lights across the globe as a signal to thirsty patrons passing by. It is the single emoji that encapsulates the entire realm of cocktail culture. How did this cocktail celebrity come to be and evolve? The Martini has an illustrious history but is not without its controversy and confusion.

We are here to tell, at least in part, some of this tale. The earliest recipes for the Martini contained Sweet Vermouth and Old Tom gin, which is sweeter than the Hollands or Dutch gin that was popular at the time. One could order a drink, favored by the 1890s, under many titles, including but not limited to: Martini, Martigny, Martine, Martineau, Martinez (1887), Turf Club (1884), amongst others.

In the late 1800s, dry drinks and dry gins were all the rage. A common customer misconception is to order a "Dry Martini," when in fact, they are searching for a cold glass of gin (or vodka, more on that to come), no vermouth at all. The famous quote from Winston Churchhill describes this type of "Dry Martini" that continues to be misordered today, "I would like to observe the vermouth from across the room when I drink my Martini." Instead, the "dry" in this early recipe comes from the switch of Sweet Vermouth (Italian) to Dry Vermouth (French) with the addition of 2 dashes of orange bitters. So yes, a Dry Martini does contain Dry Vermouth, usually 2:1. In contemporary times, a Martini containing Dry Vermouth is commonly ordered as just a regular ol' "Martini."

One reason the other monikers for this cocktail gave way to the Martini is because of Vermouth. In 1906, the Martini & Rossi company had created their own version of dry Vermouth. (Recall that previously, sweet Vermouth was primarily Italian in origin as dry mainly was French.) The company launched a huge marketing campaign claiming that one could not make a proper Martini without Martini & Rossi.

When did vodka come into the mix? According to cocktail historian David Wondrich, we find the first written reference to a vodka cocktail in 1905, when a bartender made a drink for Russian visitors in New Hampshire. The Vodka Martini, of course, makes a splash with the popular culture - namely The Thin Man of the 1930s, and James Bond (drinking a Vesper - gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet) in the late 1940s and 1950s. Before Bond's famous line, "shaken not stirred," we see and hear shaken Martinis on the silver screen. By the 1920s into the 1930s, cocktail shakers were all the rage. Banned during the Prohibition era, they were still produced and were a cocktail tool and a decorative piece in the home. Although we hear much about speakeasies and secret doors, Americans did most of their drinking and entertaining in the privacy of their home.

The shaken vs. stirred teams each have their loyal admirers. Truthfully, it comes down to your or your guest's preference. At The Cocktail Camp, we prefer the velvety smooth texture and clarity of a stirred Martini. If you look at the construction of this cocktail, we believe it benefits from a stir rather than a shake. However, to each their own as they say. If you enjoy your Martini shaken, go for it!

We prefer a coupe for our Martinis, but you may also choose a Nick & Nora glass (also named for the 1930s film The Thin Man) or a Martini glass. This cocktail glass, contemporaneously made famous during the Cosmopolitan era, was created decades before its widespread, some may say overuse, in the 1980s and 1990s. The Martini glass debuted at the 1925 Paris Exhibition as a modern take on the coupe. Like the coupe, this modernist glassware also served as a vessel for champagne.

No matter what glassware you choose, we hope you enjoy this classic Martini recipe below: