Dry Martini - how do you make yours?

Jonathan Kalman said:
Yes, Dukes makes a wonderful martini but they are a bit precious about it. My in-laws stayed there once and my father in law wanted to order a pre-dinner martini at the table before getting dinner underway. He was refused service because 'We only serve martini's in the bar'. They were completely unbending in this, which left my father in law most disappointed.
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IIRC the geography of the hotel means that the trolley would be untransportable and so would the correctly made drink, so I do have some sympathy.
 
5:1 Wine Society's High strength 50% Gin + noilly prat. Mixture freezer cold, + freeze the glasses too.

Tiny dash of distilled white vinegar + a lemon twist.
 
Thom Blach said:
IIRC the geography of the hotel means that the trolley would be untransportable and so would the correctly made drink, so I do have some sympathy.
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Exactly. It’s quite the service with all the ingredients on the trolley and the cocktail waiter coming to you.

I guess they could make a more basic one at the bar and serve it elsewhere but maybe they feel the experience of the trolley service needs to be undiluted (pun intended)

Annoyingly - no lemons in the house!
 
Peta Radford said:
Exactly. It’s quite the service with all the ingredients on the trolley and the cocktail waiter coming to you.

I guess they could make a more basic one at the bar and serve it elsewhere but maybe they feel the experience of the trolley service needs to be undiluted (pun intended)

Annoyingly - no lemons in the house!
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Quite preposterously, the reason that was given is that the hotel has a commercial sponsorship relationship with regard to the martinis served in the bar and that this contract to ‘preserve the unique martini experience’ in the bar precludes them from serving a martini anywhere else in the hotel. So a guest can order any other cocktail at the dinner table, but not a martini.
 
Jonathan Kalman said:
Yes, Dukes makes a wonderful martini but they are a bit precious about it. My in-laws stayed there once and my father in law wanted to order a pre-dinner martini at the table before getting dinner underway. He was refused service because 'We only serve martini's in the bar'. They were completely unbending in this, which left my father in law most disappointed.
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I might have some inkling why this is. I was staying at Duke’s a few years ago and met a lady journalist friend in the bar for cocktails. I knew her from her days in HK where she developed a fearsome reputation with both the pen and the bottle. She started with a Vesper, another friend joined, and she ordered another. The Head Barman reminded us all of the 2 Vesper rule. At this stage my recently arrived friend suggested that dinner might be in order. We headed downstairs to the (distinctly average) restaurant where my journalist friend ordered a third Vesper, much against our counsel , and the house rule. The restaurant waiter, unaware of my friend’s earlier consumption, duly appeared with the third Vesper. The result was not pretty .

Duke’s did end up selling another hotel room for the night however.
 
Thom Blach said:
The vinegar really is a surprise, I must try it.
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I like it, and it's amazing how detectable three drops are, but that addition immediately upon sampling seemed to me to require a similar dose of the classic if archaic orange bitters, which has made it into a very satisfying drink indeed.
After some rather imagination requiring teaching followed by the unwonted physical labour of fence moving this afternoon it is astonishing how precisely a Martini hits the proverbial spot. I am now raring to go and rather relishing the deprivation that the unrequited desire for another engenders.
 
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Saina Nieminen said:
There are such complex, amazing gins made that I just like them on their own. Lesser gins might need a less-Buñuelian recipe.
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A good Martini is more or less Gin on its own-the real modification is the extreme coldness.
I don't myself want complexity from my gin, which is why I like Gordon's export and Tanqueray, not to mention the fearsome Finsbury 60% of which brexit has deprived me.
 
What ever gin we have to hand, but Edinburgh or Sing Gin are our current favourites. Noilly Prat. Twist of lemon peel. Use an atomiser to spray the glasses which are chilled in the freezer first with the NP then fill the glass with gin.
 
So I decided to bow to forum wisdom, and tried a stirred Martini (100 each way) having first stored the Gin and Vermouth in the fridge for a couple of days. To me, the alcohol was more prominent than a shaken Martini (or Bradford, as I've been told this is), and tbh I drank it quicker but didn't enjoy it as much.

I then made a Negroni using the same method, which was delicious, but 2 cocktails means I now resemble a stroke victim...
 
Do you think you drank it quicker because it was less cold, more dilute or a combination of the two? less cold would make the alcohol more prominent, motr dilution possibly having the opposite effect. The salutary conclusion is that you are now doubly sure of your preference for the Bradford.
I wonder if one can get a Bradford in Bradford?
 
Thom Blach said:
Do you think you drank it quicker because it was less cold, more dilute or a combination of the two? less cold would make the alcohol more prominent, motr dilution possibly having the opposite effect. The salutary conclusion is that you are now doubly sure of your preference for the Bradford.
I wonder if one can get a Bradford in Bradford?
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I think i drank it quicker because it was less cold - and I agree that was also why the alcohol seemed more prominent.

But yes, clearly my preference is for a Bradford. I live literally yards from the border with Bradford (just in Leeds), and am actually from there, but I can honestly say there is nowhere in Bradford serving a decent Bradford, or Martini for that matter.
 
Thom Blach said:
Perhaps one can BYO to one of the excellent Indian or Pakistani establishments?
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Tbh the best Pakistani restaurants in Bradford are dry houses, although there are some good BYOs on the outskirts - generally the best approach is either to eat in and drink water or salted Lassi, or takeaway and drink whatever you choose at home. Personally I like Champagne or Riesling with proper Desi food.
 
Richard Ward said:
So I decided to bow to forum wisdom, and tried a stirred Martini (100 each way) having first stored the Gin and Vermouth in the fridge for a couple of days. To me, the alcohol was more prominent than a shaken Martini (or Bradford, as I've been told this is), and tbh I drank it quicker but didn't enjoy it as much.

I then made a Negroni using the same method, which was delicious, but 2 cocktails means I now resemble a stroke victim...
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One last thing to try Richard, although maybe not tonight if you’re already 2 cocktails in! Gin in the freezer (rather than the fridge). The best martinis are very chilly.
 
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