The 007 character likes to do things “to the extreme,” but bartenders disagree with his “shaken, not stirred” line. http://www.chow.com/stories/11942
I stir my Beefeater gin, diet tonic, and twist of lime. I just love the botanicals and citrus notes.
I find Tanqueray and Bombay to be drier, more subtle, and more expensive.
The tonic, by itself, works wonders for restless legs/nighttime leg cramps. I always keep a few bottles of it in the house just for that reason. I’m unsure if it is due to the quinine or the various ions in the tonic, but 4-6 ounces of tonic just takes care of the problem. Whether or not you add the other stuff is your choice.
I’ve had “three” of the habanero olives. Whew! I’m used to eating hot stuff but they’re a little bit stronger than a serrano. Tolerable though. Chili Petin is hotter.
I have some definite thoughts on this subject, without going into the heresy of calling a vodk … . Oh, that’s right, I said I wouldn’t go into that.
So while I certainly recognize that you should be free to drink whatever you want, I ask those of you who like dirty martinis to consider the care that the master distiller went to to chose perhaps more than a dozen botanicals, in careful proportions, for the gin, and then what splashing in olive brine does to that careful balance. You might as well use bottom shelf domestic wino gin.
When Tanqueray Ten came out what, some ten or more years ago?, I fell in love with it. Much more up-front than my long time favorite, Beefeaters. So I used that in my martinis, except when I could score an even more in-your-face gin, Anchor’s Junipero from my sister in California.
But after a while, I found these tiring, and so my wife and I tried a blind taste off of these two vs. Beefeaters, with Seagram’s thrown in as well. Gin:vermouth @ 5:1. We did Tanqueray Ten vs. Junipero and Beefeaters vs. Seagrams, then the winner of each vs. one another.
The winner? Good ol’ Beefeaters for its finesse without being wimpy. What I started with 40+ years ago! [Hey you kids, get off my lawn!]
Oh, and I prefer to shake, hard, for about 45 seconds, to break up the ice cubes. I love to pour my martini into a glass from the freezer and see slivers of ice float up into a layer on the surface of the martini.
For some reason I prefer my Kettle One vodka martini (dish water dirty with 2 olives, shaken with ice slivers) in a stemless martin glass, or a bucket. It’s not that I’m that particular about glassware but, I just feel stem glassware are easier to break.
Some of these martini ideas are making me rethink my aversion. Esepcial the steak and cheese one up above! Smoked salmon, smoked gouda and garlic stuffed olives - that’s what I want!!
Smoked salmon, habanero olive and jalapeno muenster. I just love the way the alcohol really brings out the salmon that’s gotten a little spicy from the habanero.
I was telling my wife about this thread last night and about the “cocktail and a snack” idea and she thought it sounded like just about the grossest thing ever. Guess a meatini is a guy thing.
This thread is making me hungry and thirsty. I’m really liking the Smoked salmon, habanero olive and jalapeno muenster martini. Looks good… sounds good…well… I might have to give that a try sometime.