The Dry Martini

It amazes me sometimes that I've made it to my late twenties without ever having a martini. Not even one of those crazy appletinis or cotton candy affairs they serve at TGI Fridays. Thankfully this book came along and Kingsley constantly claims that the Dry Martini is the greatest drink ever, so I felt behooved to try one, even if the drink he describes is more modernly known as the Gibson.

Dry Martini
4 Parts Gin
1 Part Dry Vermouth
Cocktail Onions

I made my drink stirred, not shaken, because I would rather trust the advice of a Mid Twentieth Century Humorist and not a fictional character. However, I did stick to the traditional recipe and not Amis's suggestion of 16 parts gin and 1 part vermouth--I didn't feel like trying to measure out a quarter second pour. Martini and Rossi was the vermouth, because although it's name has nothing to do with the drink, I am assured it is the right vermouth to use.

The dry martini is amazingly smooth for a drink containing mostly gin, but it is true that being chilled is key. As the drink warms it loses its drinkability, thankfully you have the cocktail onion to look forward to at the end. It's just too bad the drink has to be served in a glass so ostentatious, but then again, drink and oneupsmanship go hand in hand.

Pink Gin

I purchased a bottle of Seagram's Dry Gin today to drink the first Salty Dog of the season, and as it turns out, I just so happen to have the ingredients available to make most of the Gin drinks in the book. So the first, and probably the simplest of them is Pink Gin

Pink Gin
1 part Gin
dash of Angostura Bitters

Pink Gin obviously gets its name because when you add the drops of bitters into the gin, it produces a faint peachy pink color, any stronger of a color and you probably added too much bitters.

I can see why this drink is lost to most of humanity, as it lacks everything people seem to want in a drink these days. Hidden alcohol, fruitiness, and some sort of trendy name tacked on to a drink that includes nothing of the original recipe are nowhere to be found.

Pink Gin tastes exactly as it name implies--like pink gin. Actually, the dash of bitters goes a long way in influencing the flavor of the drink. I never thought I could stomach a drink of mostly 99.7% gin, but sure enough I did, in fact, I found it enjoyable.

Introduction

So it was actually 2009 during the Lenten Season wherein I decided to give up drink for the forty days. About a week in, I decided to amend my sacrifice and thus constrain the ban to only beer. I was a big beer snob at the time and it was the bigger sacrifice.

Aside from college invented drinks of Spiced Rum mixed with Crystal Light Iced Tea or Whiskey and Lemon Lime Gatorade, I really wasn't a drinker of spirits. Sure I would drink the occasional whiskey sour or seven and seven at restaurants, or partake in the wonder that is a margarita, but by and large the world of cocktails eluded me.

That was until I lifted the ban on liquor and made it a point to try several different drinks I had never had before, including any number of vintage cocktails like Gimlets and Rusty Nails. Along my drinking travels I stumbled upon the Salty Dog, which is the only way I drink Gin now and, of course the mojito--not the mojito you find in bars, mind you, real mojitos, with fresh squeezed lime juice, top shelf rum, cane sugar and muddled mint leaves... the kind you would probably have to pay $15 in any bar just for a chance to partake.

Fast forward to the beginning of this month, when by chance I picked up a compilation of Kingsley Amis articles on the subject entitled Everyday Drinking. In reading the reviews for the book online most of the audience said that it was irrelevant to drinking today. It is just for this reason that I intend to try most of the drinks mentioned in the tome, some are truly irrelevant, as the ingredients are no longer available, but most are just socially irrelevant--that is, they don't come in a mix and aren't sweet. Because it seems like a good idea at this time, and because I've been looking for a new project, I'm going to blog it.