Just saw this, and had not taken a photo.
Bombay Dry, Dolin Dry Vermouth
5-1 martini, up
Olive
Bombay Dry, Dolin Dry Vermouth
5-1 martini, up
Olive
What are you drinking tonight?
- Thread starter Mad Man
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Aperitivo - Select Venezia & Soda
After some yard work this evening...
Cynar & soda, with a squeeze of lemon.
And string cheese.
Cynar & soda, with a squeeze of lemon.
And string cheese.
I love Negronis. My choice of vermouth is Punt e Mes, but Cocchi Torino is a great number two.
I used to hate Negronis. Then I realized that I needed to either (a) use a more normal vermouth than Punt e Mes or (b) adjust the ratio to make it balanced. A straight 1:1:1 ratio with Punt e Mes was just wa-a-a-a-ay too bitter.
I totally get it. I am that odd duck who loves bitterness.
When I first started drinking cocktails, Punt e Mes was the first sweet vermouth I bought. That did weird things to a few cocktails. But, when I played with ratios, I ended up with something similar to a Cornwall Negroni that's really good.
2 oz — London dry gin
1 oz — Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
¼ oz — Campari
¼ oz — Aperol
Orange bitters
2 oz — London dry gin
1 oz — Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
¼ oz — Campari
¼ oz — Aperol
Orange bitters
Americano, substituted the Vermouth with Amaro for a little more bitterness
A close friend's father showed me how to make a martini when i was 15. He stressed that the key was to just show the shaker the vermoth, don't even open it. To this day i am not certain if he was joking.
There are certainly people like that. Plenty out there who give the glass a vermouth "wash", which means they swirl a small amount of vermouth around in the glass and then discard it before filling it with gin. I don't know why. Maybe they're embarrassed to just say they like to drink gin? It's hard for me to believe you actually get enough flavor from the vermouth that way to even be noticeable, but maybe I just don't have a very refined palate.
My sister and her husband are almost to that level. Winston Churchill once famously remarked, "I would like to observe the vermouth from across the room while I drink my martini." Ernest Hemingway's preferred amount of gin was barely more than that, at "just enough vermouth to cover the bottom of the glass". And Clark Gable merely tipped the bottle upside-down to get the cork stopper wet with vermouth, then rubbed the rim of the glass with it; other than that, it was just gin.
I'm more of a 3:1 kind of guy, sometimes 2:1. And I play with the types of vermouth too. Blanc. Dry. Half dry and half sweet. Whatever, have fun with it.
Or try a Rolls Royce instead. Adjust the ratio to suit your taste, but here's how I make it: 2½ oz gin, ½ oz dry vermouth, ½ oz sweet vermouth, ½ oz Bénédictine liqueur.
I've been liking Campari less and less as time goes on. I'm more likely to sub out the Campari than the vermouth these days.
An ounce each
I would guess it was a failed attempt at a Churchill reference that was totally lost on a 15 year old. Plus he was basically drink glass after glass of chilled vodka.
Well I had to pop that cork
An 8-pack of this was 10.98 CAD, rare to find something that is at least close to the buck/can mark. It's as good (average) as I expected it to be for the cost.
Sunday afternoon cocktail: Cynar & tonic, orange bitters and a squeeze of lemon, over ice.
I tend to go for other options as well, it’s fun experimenting with different Campari substitutes in cocktails.
Campari was once described to me (by a certified sommelier) as having "a weird cotton candy thing going on", and I have to agree. It's a flavor direction that I almost never want my cocktail to go. Almost the only time I reach for it nowadays is when making a Boulevardier.
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