From Martinez to Dry Martini: The Theoretical Evolution of a Classic

The old Bar Pleiades menu once offered a flight it called "The Theoretical Evolution of the Martini," a series of drinks showing how the martini might have developed: a Manhattan, a Martinez, an early dry martini, a vodka martini and finally a Vesper. "Theoretical" is the right word. The real history is murky, full of competing claims and missing documents. But the broad direction of travel is clear, and you can taste it.

Step one: the Manhattan

In the 1870s and 1880s, American bartenders began combining spirits with the new imported vermouths from Italy and France. The Manhattan, whiskey with sweet vermouth and bitters, was one of the first and most successful results. It appears in O.H. Byron's The Modern Bartender's Guide in 1884. The Manhattan established the template: a base spirit, a fortified wine, bitters, stirred over ice.

Step two: the Martinez

Replace the whiskey with gin, add a little maraschino liqueur, and you have the Martinez. It appears in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas's Bar-Tender's Guide. The gin of the time was often Old Tom, a slightly sweetened style, and the vermouth was sweet and red. The result is a rich, rounded drink, closer to a Manhattan than to a modern martini.

Where the name comes from is disputed. One story connects it to the town of Martinez in California, another to a bartender, another simply to a mishearing of "martini." None can be proven. What matters is that the drink sits at the hinge between the whiskey cocktails of the nineteenth century and the gin cocktails of the twentieth.

Martinez: 45 ml Old Tom gin, 45 ml sweet vermouth, 5 ml maraschino liqueur, 2 dashes orange or aromatic bitters. Stir and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Step three: the dry martini

Around the turn of the twentieth century, tastes moved toward drier drinks. London dry gin replaced Old Tom, dry French vermouth replaced sweet Italian vermouth, and the maraschino disappeared. Orange bitters stayed for a while. Frank Newman's American-Bar, published in Paris in 1904, includes a dry martini in roughly this shape, a sign that the style had already crossed the Atlantic.

Early dry martinis were still quite generous with vermouth, often two parts gin to one part vermouth. That is a far softer drink than the very dry martinis of the 1950s.

Early dry martini: 60 ml London dry gin, 30 ml dry vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters. Stir and strain. Garnish with an olive or a lemon twist.

Step four: drier and drier

Through the middle of the century, the vermouth kept shrinking. By the 1950s, ratios of 8:1 or even 15:1 were fashionable, and jokes about simply looking at the vermouth bottle were common. Partly this was fashion. Partly, many bars stored their vermouth badly, so it tasted stale and people preferred less of it.

Step five: vodka

From the 1950s onward, vodka marketing in the United States made the vodka martini hugely popular. It is cleaner and more neutral than gin, and it puts the emphasis on temperature and texture. The Vesper, invented by Ian Fleming for James Bond in 1953, combines gin and vodka with Kina Lillet, and serves as a fitting end to the flight.

How to make a great martini today

• Use fresh vermouth. Store it in the fridge and replace it within a month or two of opening.
• Choose your ratio. We like 5:1 gin to vermouth as a starting point. With oysters, try 3:1, as we suggest in our pairing guide.
• Stir, do not shake. Stirring gives a clear, silky drink. Shaking aerates and clouds it.
• Get it very cold. Chill the glass in the freezer and stir with plenty of hard ice. See our ice guide.
• Garnish with intent. A lemon twist makes the drink brighter; an olive makes it savory.

The flight at a glance

Drink	Base	Vermouth	Character
Manhattan	Rye	Sweet	Rich, spiced, the template.
Martinez	Old Tom gin or genever	Sweet, plus maraschino	Round, sweet, botanical.
Early dry martini	Dry gin	Dry, generous	Herbal, soft, about 2:1.
Modern dry martini	London dry gin	Dry, small	Crisp, cold, 4:1 to 6:1.
Vesper	Gin and vodka	Aperitif wine	Austere, very strong.

Old Tom gin

Many early recipes called for Old Tom gin, a style that was popular in nineteenth century England and America. It is usually slightly sweeter and rounder than London dry gin. It disappeared for much of the twentieth century and has been revived by several distillers. If you want to taste a Martinez as it was likely made in the 1880s, Old Tom is the gin to use.

Garnish: olive or twist?

A lemon twist emphasizes the gin's citrus and botanicals and is the more classic choice for a very dry martini. An olive adds a savory, briny note that many people love, especially with oysters. A pickled cocktail onion turns a martini into a Gibson. Whatever you choose, use good quality and only one or two pieces.

Common mistakes

• Warm glass. Keep coupes in the freezer.
• Old vermouth. The most common reason people think they dislike vermouth in a martini.
• Too big. A martini warms quickly. A smaller drink, finished while cold, is better than a large one that gets warm.
• Too little stirring. Stir long enough for proper dilution; a martini without water is just cold gin.

Taste the flight

If you want to understand the martini, make small versions of each step side by side: Manhattan, Martinez, early dry martini, modern dry martini. You will taste sweetness give way to dryness, whiskey give way to gin, and richness give way to precision. It is a whole century of drinking in four small glasses.

Sources and further reading

• Martini (Wikipedia)
• Martinez (Wikipedia)
• Jerry Thomas (Wikipedia)