this past weekend i was at (another) wedding. i always have the same problem whenever i go to an event like this: what will i drink?

sometimes i will have a craving for something, like a white russian, which most bars will have (unless for some strange reason they don't have milk). more usually, though, i will order something based on what liquor is smiling back at me from behind the bartender.

on saturday when cocktail hour rolled around, and after having drank my fair share of homemade white russians in the motel room, i decided that it was time to move on to another drink. i felt like a dirty martini, and when i looked to see what they had on the shelf, the pickins' were mighty slim.

a couple of years ago, i have to admit, i was an ignorant bastardess when it came to martinis. i didn't really know what was in them, but i knew i liked the extra dirty briney-ness to them. for all i would have cared, a bartender could have poured rubbing alcohol in the martini glass, with a large helping of the olives and their au jus and i would have been set. so of course back then, i ordered the sacriligious vodka "martini", because, gin was for old fogeys and losers, right?

but as i've been more inclined to make my own drinks at home, i've read more about this martini character. hmmm...gin? vermouth? in the past two years, i've been schooling myself in the art of tending bar and learning about the martini (shaken vs. stirred, how much vermouth, etc) and i'm a convert. gin does have more flavor than vodka, which translates into a more flavorful martini (a "martini" doesn't need the gin qualifier - that's exactly what a martini is). just this week i've discovered more people on my (the correct) side of the fence who think "vodka martinis are for twats and wankers" and that they are the "focal point of american mediocrity."

since i've finally come around, the more important question is what type of gin is best?

cavin and i have been experimenting with different types of gins. he is of the "gin&tonic" camp, meanwhile i of the "dirty martini" camp. while cavin has been purchasing many gins and assessing their quality and their success mixed with tonic and lime, i haven't been quite as enthusiatic with making the home martini as of late. as we get ready to move though, this bad habit of not drinking the liquor in the house (and drinking belgian beers at beck's) will probably shift to all out benders because 1) the less stuff we have, the less stuff we have to move, and 2) moving is very stressful and what better way to relieve stress than by drinking (and yelling)?

last weekend at the wedding, i wanted a dirty martini, but all they had was tanqueray. "do you have any other gin back there?" i was asking while trying to peek over the bartender's shoulders and waist, fantasizing there would be some cabinet of bombay sapphire, hendricks, beefeater, junipero, etc. the bartender looked at me like i was crazy, as probably no one had ever asked him that type of question before. "nope." argh.

why is it that tanqueray is the one gin that most places invest stock in? after having many tanqueray&tonics, i can see how the typical novice non-gin drinker can stand the extra sweetness of this liquor, especially when mixed with lime and soda. but for the purist i'm becoming, tanqueray is probably the worst gin to have in a martini, especially a dirty one. who wants a sweet martini with olives in it? of course, if you're one-of-those that wants an appletini then perhaps tanqueray is perfect for this, though, i just read that an appletini is made with vodka, not gin. hmph. go figure.

we've had several gins in the house in the past months, and while i cannot assess their quality in the G&T (earth to cavin?), for dirty martinis, i prefer hendricks, beefeater, and boodles. i've been to some nicer bars that have hendricks and beefeater, but i have yet to see boodles in public bar, unless you count gin under the counter in one of these. (haha - i would never do that...!)

don't get me wrong. vodka has its place (rusky standard!), but in a martini, it does not.

Labels: booze