I order my martinis WET, though I like the gin/rocks/lime sometimes. I don’t need a fancy glass to drink cold liquor.

Best,
Mr. Parx

You can be damned sure that when I’m in India later this year, all of my boozing will be gin-related, too.

Good Lord, I want me some gin now…

(Thanks, Jed.)

Single malt scotch, neat, with anywhere from 2 to 4 drops of water to loosen it up a bit.

I will mention, for you gin drinkers, a recent post from a friend who enjoys his gin. If he recommends a brand, I figure it’s worth checking out — that is if you like gin.

And I know about that.

Seriously, the vermouth is thought by some to have good biochemical effects, ameliorating the damage done by that shockingly big dose of gin.

Am off to the Wal-Mart to buy some Bud Light. Sorry, guys, but it is reputedly about 3.4 % and I must think of my kidneys, ‘specially considering my blood pressure which is too high for me to want to measure because if I saw the numbers then I might have a stroke, etc

Stormy: That’s called a smokey martini if my memory serves me right. Waste of Scotch.

Silver Bullet – a vodka martini with a shot of single-malt scotch (the vodka and vermouth serve to cut the bitter taste of the scotch)

I’m also partial to bourbon manhattans, especially with Maker’s Mark

On gin, try Hendrick’s.

I’ve dropped a big wad of $$ on Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon, and it’s like Jesus in a bottle. So good.

And i have to say that all gin tastes like Pine-Sol. After an evening of gin and tonics (good gin, too) i smelled and burped pine-tree. Ick.

But i love just about all liquors. Vodka. Rum. And i am one of my few friends that can still drink tequila, and there’s a lot of good ones around.

That is a direct quote by the way, but I digress. I would be floored by this request. What, a martini drinker, who is like the consumer equivalent of a drunken cheerleader on Prom night? Thus, one evening I came up with this concoction:

Dial the White Moose Martini

1 1/2 ounces of Bombay Sapphire
1 1/2 ounces of Blue Smirnoff
1 Teaspoon of Dry Vermouth
Lemon Twist
Chilled Martini Glass

**In a tumbler add ice and vermouth. Shake vigorously. Dump ice.
**Add more ice, Smirnoff and Sapphire. Shake vigorously.
**Let sit for 1 to 2 minutes to let settle (to the unwashed masses, this eliminates most of the (oh the horrors!) minuscule ice chips)
**Twist lemon wedge into chilled martini glass
**Strain the Dial the White Moose Martini into chilled martini glass
**Serve with the slightly abused lemon twist

Being able to make a martini to order, or serve your bartender’s martini, is a much appreciated skill. However, in all truth, your worth as a Modern American Bartender is how well you make your Cosmopolitans. Because at the end of the night you don’t want to go home with Hank the Martini Snob, but swanky skirts named Juliana, Susan or Teresa.

Those are proper gins. Gordon’s if you’re out in the sticks and cannot get anything else.

You wouldn’t call an amber liquid sold in a plastic bottle ‘scotch’, you wouldn’t call a lorcin a proper ‘gun’, nor can you call anything beyond the three brands cited ‘gin’. You can call them ‘fuel for the lawmower’, but not gin.

And you’re a philistine for calling chilled diluted vodka in a cocktail glass a Martini.

Well except for the depths of summer when a tall, cold gin and tonic goes down awful easy.

SayUncle, since I live fairly close (Monroe County) we’ll have to get together some PM and discuss this, maybe George Dickle and my fondness for .45 Colt revolvers.

My choice of drink is 90% of the time bourbon. And I vary between:

Makers, Hayden, Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Bulliet, & Eagle Rare. All are good and the last three are available at excellent prices.

Unc: single malt scotch (is there any other kind?) is my ‘normal’ libation of choice. I’m happy with just about any _real_ scotch (from scottland, aged at least 12 years, single malt.) I guess that could be a whole new thread.

Right on, Zendo! If you are doing tequila shooters to get drunk, by all means, drink Cuervo… It is cheaper. But if you want to taste what you are drinking, there is no substitute for Don Julio. If you hate tequila, but like other liquor, then you’ve never had good tequila. The same holds for just about any spirit.

Gin – Greg’s convinced me to try again with a better brand of gin. He’ll have to go with me just in case. I don’t want to waste booze. However, I detest olives so it’ll be Law Dog style. Please, join us!

If you only ever tried “Red, White, and Blue” you wouldn’t like beer.

If you only ever tried Ripple, you probably wouldn’t care for wine.

If you only ever try rot-gut, you won’t like any whiskey or liquor.

Gin should be Bombay Sapphire at least. Scotch should be single malt. Bourbon should be Makers Mark. Now, you may still not like it, but at least give “it” a real chance. Of course if you are going to mix it with cranberry juice or coke or orange juice or whatever, bottom shelf is probably OK for whatever your particular poison happens to be.

So you can drink G&T’s guilt free…. strictly for medicinal purposes.

Though the atomizers do a nice job of misting the glass.

I still maintain that a MARTINI can only be made with Gin. If you want a vodka on the rocks, order a vodka on the rocks. If you want a vodka martini, you are allowed to call it such, as long as you say “vodka” first. If you use the term “martini” for anything else, that is a capital party-foul, in my book. If a bartender gave me some watered-down vodka when I ordered a martini, I’d brain him! My disdain for violence is why I usually don’t order martinis at restaurants. If I do order one, I am very specific… the bartender gets step-by-step instructions, including the correct way to spear the olives.

You pour six jiggers of gin, and you drink it while staring at a picture of Lorenzo Schwartz, the inventor of vermouth

– Hawkeye Pierce

Sounds reasonably close to your original recipe, negating the switch to vodka.

I’ll stick with tequila, thanks. If I want something that tastes like gasoline, I know where to find it.

Oh and Boyd I 100% agree. Also a bartender pisses me off to no avail when he (or she) shakes the shit out of the mix and serves it with big icebergs floating on the top. That just looks BAD, and waters down the mix.

Also on the “Vodka” thing, I’ve seen a TON of bartenders attempt to make me a Vodka Collins when I ordered a Tom Collins. LAME!

I’ve narrowly escaped getting thrown in the slammer several times after a bartender asked me, “Vodka or gin?” or “What kind of vodka would you like in that?” My tender has to peel my fingers from the bartender’s throat, toss a lot of money while apologizing profusely and hustle me out the door.

If it ain’t gin, it ain’t a martini. Not that I have a strong opinion on the subject.