For a simple drink, it can cater to a range of tastes
A master-class in classic cocktails rebuilt with local craft spirits
This series aims to get beginner home bartenders up to speed one classic cocktail at a time. But, with a local twist, given all the recipes will be rebuilt with Ontario craft spirits.
The Escarpment Martini
There’s a lot of confusion about the best way to make a martini. Shaken or stirred? Dirty or neat? Olive or twist? Wet or dry? Vodka or gin? The classic formula, however, is simple: It’s a two-ingredient cocktail — gin and dry (white) vermouth — stirred and served in a chilled glass. Prefer to do vodka? Fine. You do you. It’s just not the original recipe.
Simple as it is, the gin martini does get a little more complicated when you start talking proportions. About 100 years ago, when the modern gin martini first came to be, it was much “wetter” than we’re now used to. “Wet” just means more vermouth and, in the early 20th century, it was often made with two-parts gin and one-part vermouth.
Mid-century martini drinkers started to tone down the vermouth, though. Playwright Noel
Coward went so far as to ditch it completely, advising home bartenders to fill a glass with gin and simply wave in the direction of Italy to fulfil the vermouth requirement.
Outlier Julia Child went in the other direction with her “Reverse Martinis”: five parts vermouth; one part gin.
And the craft cocktail bartenders of the past decade (many of whom cherish vermouth) promoted the 50-50: equal parts vermouth and gin.
Who’s right? Well, it depends a lot on your personal tastes and the specific ingredients. Some people really like the spicy punch of gin; others prefer the sweeter and more mellow notes of the vermouth.
This recipe is specifically tweaked for two Niagara ingredients: Dillon’s Dry 7, a perfectly balanced, lightly spiced gin; and Tawse vermouth, a gorgeous dry vermouth with a ton of character and a touch more sweetness than some European expressions. As such, we went the mid-century route and made it gin-heavy.
The Escarpment Martini
2 oz Dillon’s Dry 7 gin
1⁄4 oz Tawse vermouth
Ice
Olive or lemon twist (for garnish)
Method
Fifteen minutes before making the drink, fill a martini glass with cold water and ice and put in the freezer.
Remove glass from freezer, pour the icy water out.
Add five or six ice cubes, gin and vermouth to a mixing glass, and stir over ice for 60 seconds.
Strain into the chilled coupe, garnish with an olive or lemon twist.
Prefer a pickled onion? No problem — except then it’s called a “Gibson.”
PRO TIP: VERMOUTH
Vermouth, which comes in white (dry) or red (sweet), is a fortified wine that’s way more popular in Europe than in North America.
One of the most likely reasons for that is that vermouth spoils quickly at room temperature (within a week) and needs to be stored in the refrigerator after opening, something a lot of bartenders here didn’t used to know.
As a result, if you ever tried a vermouth in a place other than a cocktail joint or a tapas bar, it was probably spoiled.
You owe it to yourself to try it again, as a cocktail ingredient, on the rocks or with soda. It’s a delicious, low-alcohol, pre-dinner drink.