Food - Drink
Ditch The Vermouth For A Smoky Martini Variation
By MELISSA NICHOLSON
The elegant martini is an excellent choice for a before-dinner drink, and can be made with gin or vodka plus dry vermouth, or for those who like a little sweetness, sweet vermouth. However, you may be interested in trying some other variations, such as the unusual smoky martini that drops the vermouth altogether in favor of something else.
Popular smoky cocktails include the smoked Old Fashioned as well as smoke and rum, and smoky flavor can be added by using a smoker designed for cocktails, or simply by adding spirits with smoky notes. For the smoky martini, blended Scotch whisky is blended with gin in place of vermouth, no cocktail smoker required.
The smoky notes of a blended Scotch seem to be made to mingle with the botanical gin in this delicious twist. If the combo sounds strange to you, know that the smoky martini is actually quite time-honored, and author Norman Mailer even had one of his 1950s-era characters shake up this drink in his book "Harlot's Ghost."