Food - Drink
The Key Ingredients That Make A Martini 'Perfect'
BY MICHELLE WELSCH
Martinis have been enjoyed since the 1870s, but the original martini recipe was noticeably sweet and included bitters, gin, and vermouth. Martinis have now evolved into their own category, ranging from "wet" to "bone dry," with the "perfect" Martini falling somewhere in the middle.
Traditional martinis mix gin with vermouth, but the ratio of the two ingredients can vary. A perfect martini is made with equal parts dry and sweet vermouth and double that amount of vodka or gin, but other than these ratios, the composition of the drink is up to taste.
The perfect martini lies smack in the middle of the martini continuum, with a dry martini made with gin and dry vermouth on one end of the spectrum, and a sweet martini made with gin and Rosso vermouth on the other. In fact, perfect martinis were called "medium martinis" in the 1930s.