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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFor those too embarrassed to ask, contemporary Martinis are taken in two forms, their base spirits being either gin<\/a> or vodka<\/a>. Then add a dribble of vermouth and a little bit of magic, and you have the cocktail that has had the world glassy-eyed and smiling for decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, like all symbols that claim celebrity status, things suddenly become so much more complex, and the perfect dimensions, not to mention the ancestry of this elusive substance, are still in heated debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe finest of all cocktails. Subtle, potent, and a wonderful aperitif, it even has good looks,\u201d said Michael Jackson (not the one you\u2019re thinking of) in his classic tome The Bar & Cocktail Book<\/em>. In it, he claims the origins of the Martini lie in the hands of a bartender at New York City\u2019s old Knickerbocker Hotel, who invented the drink for John D. Rockefeller back in 1911. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, it\u2019s no surprise that an American is attributed with such a momentous discovery, although he does admit that Rockerfeller preferred the use of sweet Italian vermouth, rather than the bone dry variants popular today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mixologist Alexander B. Struminger wasn\u2019t so sure about America\u2019s claims to the modern-day Martini. He admits that while the US made the martini famous, there are still stories of its inception from Germany, Italy, France, and of course, England, the home to pomp and lunchtime drinking. \u201cIt seems therefore appropriate that the origins are obscured by the horizon of time and the story shrouded in myth and legend,\u201d he concedes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, in his book Martini<\/em>, Strumminger says that the cocktail was probably conceived in Martinez, California in 1870, where it was concocted by a bartender with too much time on his hands. This town, like every in the state, has seized its opportunity for gratuity and claims itself the birthplace of the martini (and forever may it be a place of pilgrimage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever its origins, the Martini is ever-evolving. Old Tom Gin was replaced with dry London style gins such as Gordon\u2019s<\/a> or Tanqueray<\/a> (Bombay<\/a> sits in a style of its own), and Martini & Rossi<\/a> extra dry vermouth became synonymous with the modern-day \u2018silver bullet\u2019. Olives, lemon twists, cocktail onions, even jalapenos found themselves drenched in this socially rationalised inclination, and the Martini became the Vodkatini, the Cosmopolitan, the Espresso Martini, the Saketini, the Tequilatinis, the Vesper, and the Manhattan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with small-batch gin and vodka distillation in vogue, bartenders will continue to present new and exciting variations on the theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone has their way of drinking this little piece of history, and none more so than Agent 007, James Bond. \u201cI never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well made. I don\u2019t like small portions of anything\u201d says Bond in Casino Royale<\/em> (the book, not the movie).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whichever way you like your Martini – shaken, stirred, sweet or neat – the Martini will forever have a place in society, where sociality, politics, and sophistication can be summed into one 2oz. V-shaped glass, with a twist of ripe charisma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Martini\"](\"https:\/\/alphamen.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/martini-cocktail-1024x683-1024x683.jpg\")
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