Sweet Vermouth

The Perfect Martini

by Jen on January 11, 2011

The perfect martini is by far my favorite cocktail.  I crave it around 5pm every Friday and avoid bars because I dare not try their rendition.

Vermouth lost popularity sometime in the past century (Will could tell you more about that), and the martini is a drink that has really suffered as a result. Nowadays people make it with just a wash of vermouth and rarely include bitters.  You wind up with a chilled glass of gin (or vodka).  That’s not a cocktail.  That’s a gin (or vodka) on the rocks.

Traditional martinis, on the other hand, contain:

  • 1 1/2 ounce gin
  • 1/2 ounce either sweet (for a Sweet Martini) or dry (for a Dry Martini) vermouth
  • 1 liberal dash of orange bitters

Stir all the ingredients over ice till chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish the sweet martini with a brandied cherry or a twist of orange and the dry martini with a cocktail onion or olive.

While I enjoy both the sweet and dry martinis, the perfect martini is my favorite. Made with both sweet and dry vermouth, the perfect martini is a little sweet but has the savory tastes of the gin and dry vermouth.

The Perfect Martini

  • 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 ounce dry vermouth
  • 1 1/2 ounces gin
  • 1 liberal dash of orange bitters

Stir all the ingredients over ice till chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. The perfect martini steals its garnish from the sweet martini so top it with a brandied cherry or a twist of orange and enjoy!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 2 comments }

The Manhattan

by Will on January 8, 2011

  • 1 1/2 oz. bourbon, rye, or Canadian whiskey
  • 3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients in ice, serve straight up with a cherry

Many in the cocktail set say that this should only properly be made with an American whiskey. I think such narrow provincialism has no place in the modern world, and generally use Canadian Club. But I’ve also had great success using Old Overholt rye whiskey. And there are many good bourbons on the market these days.

Salut!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 5 comments }

The Rob Roy

by Will on September 7, 2010


If I could only ever have one single cocktail, it would be the Rob Roy.

1 1/2 oz. Scotch
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
2 generous shakes of Angostura bitters
Serve on the rocks in an old-fashioned glass
This drink is the Manhattan’s mellower cousin. It was invented shortly after Dewar’s Scotch whiskey started being distributed in the US to the general public. Before that it was only rye, bourbon, and maybe Canadian whiskey. Coincidentally, there was, around the same time, a successful Broadway production of Walter Scott’s novel, Rob Roy.
As with Bonnie and Clyde and Jesse James, the historical Rob Roy was a murderous, thieving scoundrel, about whom almost nothing good can be said. For reasons having to do with literary conventions, people like to romanticize the doings of violent thieves. In 80 years, Bernie Madoff and the Sniper of several years past will somehow probably be remembered as folk heros.
Above: Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg sing “Bonny and Clyde”
You’ll notice that this drink has a taste reminiscent of coca-cola. I think that’s no coincidence. Angostura bitters were a popular product, and its not surprising the drug dealers who made Coke would want to ape their distinctive taste.
There’s a lot to be said about Angostura, actually, but I’ll save that for another time.
Some people say this is a fancy drink and calls for a high-end scotch. I think that’s totally crazy. If you have a really good scotch, drink it neat or with soda water, to really savor it! The Rob Roy tastes great with anything better than Ballentine’s. Caveat: avoid Cutty Sark, despite its cool label.
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 0 comments }

The Benicia

by Will on August 29, 2010


This drink is on the sweet side, which I think is what most people are looking for in a drink, especially those who are just getting started.

The Benicia Cocktail:
1 1/2 oz. London dry gin
1 oz. dry vermouth
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Italian blood orange soda
1 dash grenadine
Combine the gin, vermouth, and soda in a mixing glass. Stir with ice. Add the dash of grenadine to the cocktail glass. Serve straight up with a cherry garnish.
Yes, cheapskates, Gallo vermouth and Rose’s grenadine will do just fine. Don’t you dare sub vodka for the gin.
This cocktail is my variation on the Bronx cocktail, a classic cocktail created more than 100 years ago back east, and very popular in the day. The Bronx is a great drink that I often serve to people who say they don’t like gin and/or vermouth, because it tends to cure people of their irrational fear of both, in one fell swoop.
I tried to keep with the spirit of the original name by naming this drink after a peripheral city in the metropolitan region I live in. Benicia has no zoo, but boasts some very pretty sites and a community of interesting artists.
Fun Fact!: there was a time when Benicia was the capital of California.
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 0 comments }

The Negroni

by Will on August 25, 2010

Above: the visible hand
This is a drink that’s good when it’s quite hot out.
  • 1 oz. gin
  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
Serve on ice, with a lemon peel garnish
Supposedly the name comes from an Italian count named Negroni, who liked to order this at his local cafe. Orson Welles was a big fan. The key ingredient is the Campari, a very bitter Italian aperitif, which Jen describes as tasting “like vomit.” I disagree.
True confession: when we were camping, and didn’t have any sweet vermouth, I tried doing one of these with red Gatorade instead. It tasted just fine.
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 0 comments }

The Santa Rosa

by Jen on July 23, 2010

To celebrate the weekend and the return of Madmen this Sunday, I would like to share Will’s most recent cocktail creation: The Santa Rosa.

The back story:

We watched Madmen as a marathon last winter, having only discovered it when my mother introduced me to it on a family trip.  For a month, we did nothing else but watch Madmen.  We were intrigued by Don’s usual drink: the Old Fashioned, and also by Betty Draper’s Gimlet and the martinis that the Fat Cats on the show have during their decadent three-martini lunches.  Also, the casseroles, but we quickly discovered that casseroles contain a lot of cheese and let that phase go by without too much hubbub.  The cocktail obsession, however, stuck with us, and Will started rapidly acquiring the sundry liquors, elixers and various bitters needed to try anything and everything, with an emphasis on the cocktails from the days of yore.

Will quickly tired of other people’s recipes and started to experiment in mixology, sometimes with disastrous results.  The Santa Rosa is his first cocktail creation that’s ready for prime time (though he also has come up with his own interesting twists on some of the classics!).

Shake or stir the following and serve on ice in an old-fashioned glass.  The garnish of a sprig of cilantro adds a wonderful complexity and tingles your taste buds.

  • 1 1/2 oz bourbon
  • 1 1/2 oz fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice
  • 1/8 oz Benedictine
  • 1/8 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/8 oz grenadine
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters if you have the large bottle, 2 dashes if dealing with the small bottle

The 1/8 oz is pretty hard to measure–most recipes would just call it “one dash” to avoid stressing you out. Don’t sweat it if your measure is a little off.

How Will created it:

The Santa Rosa began as a way to get rid of some quickly aging but still good grapefruit.  Bourbon was a natural choice for the liquor pairing because they both have such strong favors.  He considered adding simple syrup to sweeten it (grapefruit is very sour), but dismissed this option as obvious and boring.

Instead he added a little Benedictine–a very strong, complex liqueur. The drink tasted better, but still a little sour and astringent.  Will added Angostura bitters, comme il faut (because that’s what you do). He added grenadine, and the drink was no longer sour, and had a lovely red color.  But still there lingered the astringent bourbon finish!

He thought long and hard about what would make it smoother, and decided that sweet vermouth would be good for that.  He added a little bit, and liked the result… a lot!

Note:  In a pinch, Drambuie could be substituted for Benedictine.  They cost about the same (about $30 a bottle), but Benedictine is hard to find.
Also note:  Many of these ingredients–in fact all of these ingredients, will be consumed at a very slow pace.  You may balk at the initial investment, but we find we get a lot of joy in sharing our varied cocktail menu with guests (and our taste buds!) and you may too.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks

{ 1 comment }