Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The Martinez

I've recently plunged myself into the world of cocktails. Here is my favorite way to mix a Martinez, the sweeter, darker ancestor of both the Martini and the Manhattan:

1.5 oz sweet vermouth (been using Cinzano)
1.5 oz Old Tom gin (been using Hayman's)
.25 oz Maraschino (been using Luxardo)
1 Maraschino cherry

I like them sweet and on the rocks, so... Pour the vermouth over 6-8 icecubes, and stir until the ice is broken in (rounded off). Pour in the gin and the Maraschino, and drop in the cherry, and shake the bitters bottle three times. Stir well. The cherry will hide beneath the ice.

Now comes the important part!

Pour a little more Maraschino on top, so it floats, and add two more shakes of the bitters.

Delicious.

Stick your nose right in there and take a deep breath. The aroma alone is intoxicating. Once you take a sip you'll want another. And, since you floated that Maraschino, you don't notice that it gets stronger as you continue to imbibe. Yes!

5 comments:

KateMadd/skmckinn said...

Gin puts on bitters like I might put on...um...platform shoes. Because I WISH I WAS WHISKEY. Uh, whoops. I mean, I wish I was tall.

But I'm saying: Gin *wishes* it were whiskey.

Gin and bitters is like
me in Aeon's boots
.

Just kidding. I ain't even tried a Martinez. I shouldn't knock before I've tried.

Digitizdat said...

Kate, the Old Tom gin is where it's at, as far as the Martinez is concerned. I mixed the same recipe w/Maker's Mark last night, and it was good, but not as good as the gin. Seriously. I agree, it's counterintuitive.

Also, the picture of you in Aeon boots - Awesome! Haha! I love how the thighs bulge out at the top - hysterical.

Interesting footnote: you and I share the same unconnected 'g' when printing. Mine's a little more curvy, but both yours and mine resemble elongated 's's below the center line.

Also, your handwriting resembles Damian's to a great degree, minus the frequent misspellings and weird 'a's and 'd's. I think it is mostly that you both use very small letters that are widely spaced.

KateMadd/skmckinn said...

Okay I'll need to order a Gin Martinez from my pops the next time he's making--blech--martinis. I just don't see why anybody drinks anything but the "juice of the barley," as the old song says.

Dad gets the Bombay Sapphire, though. (And there's no way I'll pay for gin in a bar. Give me a BOURBON and bitters, yes, I'll pay. I think my biases have to do with Longshanks and the Scots-Irish as much as flavor.)

Yep the handwriting comparison has been made, for sure. But I must confess--my handwriting has been compared to other mens' scripts, too... I think I just write like a dude.

It's also been compared to arabic. And I do an opposite tilt (should go right but goes left). Do you? Don't these things mean something about personality, or something? What about our open g's? I'm looking it up. It's like astrology.

KateMadd/skmckinn said...

Whoah. Strike that. I don't have time to figure out this whole "graphology" thing. Good grief. Apparently I'd have to go to school in Buenos Aires or Barcelona.

Digitizdat said...

UPDATE: Fuck Hayman's. Ransom is where it's at, and it is wonderful. I've stopped including the cherry because it didn't really add anything, and I've started breaking up the ice cubes more aggressively. I make my Martinez in a coffee mug, actually, and I just put the right amount of ice in there, put my hand over the top, and shake the hell out of it until all the ice cubes are nice and broken.