- This is How to Drink, the show about making cocktails
and how to drink them.
I'm Greg and I have never been a professional bartender.
I've never even had a job in a bar.
I don't worry too much about precision and technique
because at the end of the day,
if the drink you like is in the glass, you did it right.
Let's get going.
Let's make a martini.
Let's make two martinis.
So much has been said and can be said about the martini
that I wouldn't really know where to begin.
I guess I would say this though,
the idea that a dry martini has to do with the level
of vermouth in or not in the drink is a really modern one.
When that phrase came into use,
it was because there was this new dry gin
coming out of London that was younger and unsweetened.
Gin prior to that was jenever and Old Tom
and it was all of the slightly sweeter pallet.
You had to specify ordering a dry martini
because what you were saying to the bartender
was oh by the way, use that dry gin,
not the other stuff, regular gin.
I have no love for the idea
that a dry martini is a glass of gin
with a drop of vermouth in it,
that, in my book, isn't a cocktail.
I personally think that that comes
from a very deserved reverence
that the Western world has for Winston Churchill,
who famously liked his martinis with a glass of gin
and a bow in the general direction of France.
That might have been great for Winston Churchill,
I don't know, I like my martinis to be a cocktail,
a balanced blend of ingredients.
And so, without further ado, here are two old martinis.
According to Wondrich, this martini recipe
comes from the Hoffman House right around 1900,
where it was called a Mahoney cocktail,
but it was the standard dry martini of its age.
We're gonna start with one and a half ounces of gin.
And it's equal parts vermouth,
so we need another ounce and a half of Noilly Prat.
You could use a French vermouth of your choice
and two dashes of orange bitters.
Any orange bitters should be fine.
And then crack a little ice over that
and we're gonna stir.
Give that a delectable little stir.
(old-fashioned upbeat music)
We're gonna serve it in a coupe.
We're gonna garnish this
with a twist of orange off my channel knife.
And so, that is a 1900 or so dry martini.
And normally at this point in the show, I drink it,
but today we have to make another drink.
So, that stands by for just a second.
Now, we're gonna make a gin martini.
This is an older gin martini.
And here we go.
Two ounces of Old Tom.
I need one ounce of vermouth.
And I'm spilling it everywhere, as we do on my show.
One dash of absinthe.
You know, absinthe is a very powerful flavor.
And now, we're gonna crack some ice and give it a stir.
Give that a good stir.
(tapping)
That drink's ready.
That's a good drink.
Serve this drink in a Nick and Nora glass.
And here we go.
We don't want to waste a single precious drop of cocktail.
For this, we're going to use a peel of lemon for garnish.
And now, for a How to Drink first, two cocktails.
Okay, that's really good.
Oh man.
So, the absinthe and the Old Tom work together
to provide a really interesting evolution in this
and even though there's no orange bitters present,
or orange present at all,
I'm actually getting sort of a Seville orange note here.
And then this...
So, in this one,
the vermouth takes front and center stage right away.
I like this drink,
but with both of them in my hand,
I like this drink more,
this older style gin cocktail made with Old Tom.
Man, this is good.
Yeah, woo.
I mean, it's a party, you know?
How can you go wrong with that?
Double fisting martinis over here at How to Drink
cause that's how we roll.
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed the show.
And if you did, I hope you'd...
And if you did, I hope you'll subscribe.
I would point to where the subscriber button is,
but my hands are very full right now.
I look forward to responding
to your comments and your emails.
You guys are the best and make this show possible.
Thank you so much.
How to Drink.
See you next week, bye bye.
I have drinking to do.