Neither Hubby nor I had tasted a martini before this adventure.
I told Dad about the mixology venture and how it started off with gin. Dad told me that gin is like wine in that each distillery creates its own flavors and different brands of gin taste quite different. His favorite brand is Tanqueray. His favorite gin cocktail is a couple measures of gin, mixed with a couple spoonfuls of olive juice, stirred and served over ice. This is sort of like a Dirty Maritini, only Dirty Martinis are usually made with vodka.
Anyhow, since Ms. Keith’s visit finished off the bottles (oh, yes, I meant to make that plural, bottleS) of Bombay gin, I purchsed a bottle of Tanqueray.
I went ahead and made the classic dry martini from the book instead of Dad’s Dirty Gin. This involved a micro-splash of white vermouth (the book said to pour the vermouth as if it were the last bottle on earth), and a measure of gin poured over ice, stirred, and then strained into a martini glass. I then plopped a martini olive (green, stuffed with a pimento) into the glass. Now – what is the difference between shaken and stirred? Good question. Ms. Keith asked it during her visit as she watched me stir and stir and stir the gin sling. I didn’t know the answer, I was just going by the book, so I looked it up. Apparently, you stir a cocktail when you want the result to be clear. Shaking a cocktail with ice results in a cloudy liquid.
A week later, I made a Gibson. According to gin lore, the Gibson is a martini named for the American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson who preferred his martini with a couple of cocktail onions rather than an olive. He also liked a more generous splash of vermouth. What a good idea! The Gibson is also stirred with ice and then strained into a martini glass that contains two pickled cocktail onions (apparently important to use two) skewered at the bottom of a toothpick (apparently important they are at the bottom – to tempt you with their savory aroma and salty good looks.)
Both of these drinks were made on a Sunday evening. They were sipped while we lounged in our “smoking jackets” (formerly known as bathrobes). Also, I was able to find food that complemented both these drinks! I served a mild goat cheese laced with black olives spread on whole wheat crackers with the martini. I served crunchy wontons filled with crab and cream cheese with the Gibson.
The martini was good. I did notice the Tanqueray qualities of the gin while I sipped it. Tanqueray is more bitey than Bombay. Not being an afficianado of spirits, I don’t know what word to use other than ‘bitey.’ It just grabs your throat more as it goes down. By the time I ate the olive, the olive had soaked up a lot of gin. I popped the whole olive in my mouth, as I would any regular olive, and was met with a bitey surprise. It was like taking a shot of gin. My advice is beware the gin olive! It looks innocent, sitting there with its drab green outside and dull red inside, but a bitey surprise lies in the space between the green and red!
The Gibson was delectible! The extra vermouth balanced out the bitiness of the Tanquery. The onions are more pleasant to look at – they don’t stare at you like an olive does. Additionally, I felt the onions absorbed the gin and vermouth and resulted in a more balanced bite than the olive. The onions were sweet and salty with a touch of “tang.”
I enjoyed the Gibson so much that I instituted a new rule: if Hubby or I find a cocktail particularly scrumptious we may have a second – and on Gibson night we did – no regrets!