Martinis are fun drinks! There's no way around it. They're just fun! There are as many different recipes and theories about martinis as there are martini drinkers. They also go great with cigars!

Martinis are just cocktails meaning that it's a ton of alcohol skillfully blended to make a tasty beverage. The TRUE martini uses this recipe…

• Fill a shaker with ice
• Pour vermouth over ice
• SHAKE WELL
• Strain into a glass and drink

I'd also like to add one thing to this recipe… Run to bathroom and PUKE YER GUTS OUT!

God, that's disgusting! But that's the real deal. Thankfully someone had the good sense to NEVER MAKE THAT AGAIN and came up with the traditional martini cocktails that we know today.

Keeping your personal preferences to yourself, we should be able to agree that traditional martinis are gin or vodka based. The simplest recipes involve no vermouth at all (purists don't even believe in vermouth). Pour a couple of shots of gin (or vodka) into a shaker with ice. Shake 'til your hands fall off, strain into a martini glass, and drink! Garnish with a cocktail olive or onion and your drinking a martini.

It starts getting more complicated from there. Add a drop or two of dry vermouth and you've got a VERY dry martini. Add a black olive and you have a 'Buckeye'. Some olives are stuffed with cheese, pimento, garlic, peppers, nuts, or nothing at all. Garnishes include everything from olives, onions, fruits, vegetables, candy, chocolate, and so on. Mixing ingredients are limitless! You can make a martini out of just about everything under the sun. There are many great books about making the perfect martini. I suggest that you try as many as you can and let your personal tastes dictate future drink combinations.

What You Need

Making a martini is simple. You do need a few toys though. You will need a good cocktail shaker, stainless steel preferably. This breaks the ice better and gets the drink much cooler. You can use pint glasses in a pinch. You'll also need a shot glass or a jigger. Martini glasses aren't a must but they do put the bow on the package nicely. C'mon, they're so cool looking!

As for the alcohol, you'll want good ingredients to make good martinis. This doesn't mean you have to break the bank buying the stuff. The best martini I ever had used Gordon's Dry gin and nothing else! It's just a good idea to start with better ingredients. Once again, let your tastes dictate your choices. Vodka is another one of those drinks that causes many debates. By law, vodka isn't allowed to have ANY flavor to it. Do you need to buy the top shelf vodka for your martinis? NO! I know many people who use the crappy stuff and their martinis are great! Do a little test with your vodkas. Buy a bottle of cheap stuff and a bottle of expensive stuff. Take a shot of each. If you can taste a difference, more power to you. You probably won't even know the difference. A good rule to follow is if you can taste ANYTHING it's NOT good vodka.

Recipes

Here are a few recipes that I like. I'll be featuring new recipes often and I encourage you to send along your favorites as well. For many fantastic martini recipes I recommend the book, Shaken Not Stirred, from Harper Perennial. It's great!

The Martello
(An Andy Martello Original!) Guys, this is a GREAT "chick drink". Lotsa booze, smooth and sweet, good looking, and enough kick that you can have one and still feel like a man!

In a cocktail shaker (with ice of course) add…
1 shot of vodka
½ shot of amaretto
½ shot of peach schnapps
½ shot of maraschino cherry syrup (or maraschino liqueur if you want it really strong)

• Shake well
• Sugar the rim of a chilled martini glass. The best way is to take a piece of orange or lemon and coat the rim, then dip in sugar.
• Strain into the glass and add a cherry. Let the liquid settle before serving. It looks much better that way. Presentation is everything! Variations include adding a second shot of vodka for more punch or adding less schnapps for…well less schnapps taste! A great drink!

Andy's Cocktail Olives - (Another Original)

• Buy some good-sized cocktail olives, bacon, and cream cheese.
• Take out the pimento from some olives.
• Cook up a few slices of bacon until crispy. Remove all excess grease from bacon by drying on a paper towel.
• Warm up some cream cheese to make it softer.
• Crumble up the bacon into many small pieces and combine with the cream cheese.
• Spread cheese/bacon mixture on a plate and cover with plastic wrap.
• Put into the fridge or freezer until it's very cold.
• Remove from freezer and thinly slice the cheese (hey you're cutting the cheese-HA!). Using a butter knife stuff the cheese into the olives.

Makes a great addition to any gin or vodka martini! I know I could have just said, "stuff some olives with cream cheese and bacon". This is the best way to make them. There's very little mess to clean up this way. My wife loves these olives. They're good enough to use as an appetizer!

Martini Tip

If you like a little vermouth in your dry martini but are never sure just how much to use, simply drain the brine from a jar of olives an fill the jar with vermouth! The olives will soak up the vermouth and provide a perfect amount for your martini. Make sure to label the jar so you know which one has vermouth in it. You don't want to give a vermouth soaked olive to a vermouth hater!

Got some fantastic martini information? Send it to me NOW! Any tips or recipes you have should be sent to andy@andymartello.com. No prizes for getting your suggestion on the site this time. Just bragging rights! Sorry. Someday I'll get stickers or t-shirts made for you. Until then you can just enjoy knowing that the world has access to your brilliance! Hey, you get to drink a good martini! That should be its own reward.
 

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