GETTING STARTED WITH THE MARTINI COCKTAIL
Our passion is the classic, very dry martini. Made with premium gin, a quality vermouth, fresh garnish, and expertly stirred (never shaken), presented in a properly chilled martini glass.
You may well enjoy something different and that's OK. While what we like to call "hyphen-tinis" are very popular right now, you won't find any mention of apple-tinis or espresso martinis on this site. We focus on our niche and that's what we will talk about here.
Our Benchmark
In a well-hidden underground lab filled with boffins in white coats, locked in an impenetrable safe made from exotic materials such as Unobtanium, we keep our closely guarded secret benchmark Martini recipe. Only one bartender in the whole wide world currently knows how to make it properly and holds an official WBM “License to Serve.”
OK, we went a bit James Bond there for a minute. Fact is, the benchmark is possibly the world’s worst kept secret, but the rest of it is all true. Except for the bit about labs, boffins and a safe.
As our loyal followers know, our benchmark Martini consists of Tanqueray 10, stirred extra dry with Noilly Prat, and garnished with three olives. It’s what we order as our first martini everywhere we go. Having a benchmark allows us not only to enjoy a (hopefully) consistent drink anywhere in the world, but it lets us assess a bartender’s skills with a simple control. Admittedly that is starting to sound a but scientific – as stated previously, there really are absolutely no boffins involved in this process.
Tanqueray 10 has featured as the gin in our benchmark since we started this adventure. We do love our Tanqueray, but in the last few years we’ve also made a lot of new friends at a whole bunch of small-batch distillers all around the globe. And they have repeatedly demonstrated that they want to be part of the conversation about gin in general, and about their brands in particular. We applaud their commitment and want to do our small part in recognising it.
So we created our annual competition to replace the gin in our benchmark. It is open to anyone who makes a commercially-available gin. Read more...
You can't go wrong with any of the gins on this page. They've all been Contenders in our World's Best Martini Challenge. We do suggest however that you start with our winners: 2017 Daffy's Gin and 2018 Arbikie AK's Gin.
Here's how to mix the winning Arbikie recipe from 2018:
Arbikie Gin brought a taste of local Scottish botanicals to the competition with their Showcase Martini. By combining Arbikie AK's Gin, sea herbs vermouth, smoked liquid and lemon zest they have created a unique twist on the classic Martini that tantalises taste buds.
Ingredients:
55ml AK's Arbikie
8 ml of sea herbs vermouth
2 drop smoked liquid
Lemon zest
Method:
Chill the Martini glass with dry ice and zest the mixing glass. Next place chunks of ice into the mixing glass, add all of the ingredients and stir. Remove the dry ice from the Martini glass and pour the mixture into the glass, adding a piece of lemon zest to garnish.
Here's how to mix the winning Daffy's recipe from 2017:
The dry Daffy's martini is the perfect complement to their balanced and flavoursome gin.
So grab your mixing glass, your mixing spoon and:
5 ice cubes
1 1/2 parts DAFFY'S
1/2 part dry Vermouth
A dash of orange bitters
1 strip unwaxed lemon peel to garnish
Place the ice, gin, bitters and vermouth in a mixing glass (or cocktail shaker if you promise not to shake anything!) Stir down with a mixing spoon for eighteen seconds. Strain into a martini glass. Pinch the strip of lemon peel over the glass to release the oils and then drop into the martini.