The Dry Gin Martini - Part the Second

It's March-tini Madness at Joe Canal's! We're collecting your best Martini recipes and a winner will be chosen at each store! Click here for info about the contest in WOODBRIDGE! Click here for info about the contest in LAWRENCEVILLE! Here's the second part of our Martini series for you to get some "gin-spiration"!

Boy-O-Boy, do I like gin. There is just something in that crisp, dry, aromatic flavor that opens up my taste buds and prepares me for a terrific dining experience. I can’t remember my first Martini, but for as long as I can remember it has been my aperitif of choice. Oh, I change it up from time to time. A Negroni here, a Manhattan there, even a Daiquirí on occasion, like the one I had this past weekend at Cuba Libre in Philadelphia. Not the frozen one with the little umbrella in it, but the real Daiquirí that Papa Hemingway would have had at the Floridita Hotel in Havana, Cuba. But I digress...

The name gin comes to us courtesy of either the French genièvre or the Dutch jenever both of which mean "juniper". One encyclopedia states that it comes from Geneva, as in Switzerland. OK, I guess, but even that name comes from the innocuous little berry that has brought such happiness, and also much misery, to the world.

Gin is first attributed to Franciscus Sylvius, a late sixteenth-century Dutch professor of medicine, who thought he had found a remedy for the Bubonic Plague. HAH! Gin, unlike bourbon or whiskey, has very little in common with the grain it is actually distilled from. Yet unlike vodka, which by design has no color, flavor or odor (at least it shouldn’t), gin is diluted alcohol flavored with juniper as well as a host of other plant extracts and herbs. There are different styles of gin and I could write a small novel about the production of London Dry Gin, Old Tom Gin, and Dutch Genever, but basically it comes down to the number of aromatics and the amount of residual sugar that is left after fermentation. London Dry Gin is what we typically see on the shelves as Tanqueray, Bombay, etc. Genever is slightly more aromatic in nature and can actually be a little sweet. Old Tom Gin, which some have dubbed "The Missing Link," is somewhere in the middle.

I should probably get back to the Martini, which was the purpose of this blog to begin with, but it is easy to get side-tracked when discussing my favorite spirit. Did I mention that I liked gin? Anyway, on to the origins of the Dry Martini which are not necessarily shrouded in mystery, but shrouded in memory. There are several "origins" of the Martini and it is possible that they are all correct. It seems that no one can remember the "first" one, and once the cocktail was firmly fixed as the country’s preeminent libation and gift to the drinking world, everyone who knew someone who had a drink with gin in it staked their claim to its invention.

Here are just a few:
According to the book. Shaken Not Stirred by Anastasia Miller and Jared Brown, Johann Paul Aegius Schwartzendorf is the only so-called "inventor" who was a drinker rather than a bartender. Johann, a musical prodigy, was born in Germany in 1741 and was the organist at a local Jesuit seminary by the time he was ten. Striking out to try to make a name for himself in France, he befriended an organ maker named Dupont who convinced him to change his name to Johann Paul Aegide Martini, evidently because he thought the Italian composers were getting the best gigs. Well, ultimately he scored big, musical pun intended, and found great success which included writing a sonata for Napoleon’s wedding. But ol' Johann boy also liked to throw back a few after a hard day at the symphony. According to one biographer, his drink of choice was a drink made with genièvre and dry white wine which his friends named after him. Legend has it that after his death in 1816, when French musicians and artists sought their fortunes in the New World in the 19th century, they imported this recipe from home.

One of the more popular theories is that it was created by none other than legendary bartender Professor Jerry Thomas who purportedly invented the “Martinez” cocktail when he was working as a bartender at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco between 1860 and 1862. This concoction was made with Old Tom Gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur and orange bitters. However, this doesn’t quite ring true for me. Thomas produced the first addition of his landmark treatise on all things slurpable, The Bartender’s Guide and Bon Vivant Companion, in 1862. If he invented the Martinez, he certainly would have included it in that tippling tome. Still, the cocktail is terrific and Joe Canal’s just started to carry orange bitters which I heartily endorse.

There are many, many more origin possibilities. For instance, let’s not forget Martini di Arma di Taggia, a bartender at the long-gone Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City, who purportedly invented the drink for John D. Rockefeller in 1910. Or even the corporate spin from the likes of the Heublein Company, who were already making pre-mixed Martinis back in 1892. Or the citizens of Martinez, California, who say it was a local bartender, Julio Richelieu who first made it in 1870. Some even credit Martin & Rossi, the vermouth maker, for coming up with the cocktail.

Well, you get the idea. However it was created, the Dry Martini still remains the world’s most prominent cocktail. So simple to make, so elegant, so steeped in history, so delicious... hmmm. I think gin is in Aisle Six.

The Martinez Cocktail
-2 oz gin
-3/4 oz sweet vermouth
-1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
-1 dash orange bitters
-lemon twist for garnish

The Rockefeller
created by Martini di Arma di Taggia for John D. Rockefeller
-3 oz. London dry gin
-3 oz. Italian dry vermouth
-a splash of orange bitters
-Garnish with a large thin slice of lemon peel and an olive

The Gimlet
-1 1/2 oz. gin
-1/2 oz. Rose's lime juice
-Lime-wedge garnish

"A real Gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice, and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow." -Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, 1953