World Martini Day is this Saturday: Let us inspire you
Let me let you into a little secret: flavoured gins and vodkas can do away with the faff and reduce the building costs of a memorable home-shaken Martini. The UK’s countless new small batch distillers have brought with them a bewildering increase in the number of cocktail possibilities so why not enjoy them without so much shaking and stirring? If this sounds like a solid plan, then you’re in luck, because this Saturday 19 June is World Martini Day.
Personally I enjoy a Jaffa Cake Gin Martini, based, of course, on the cakes (or is that biscuits?) first produced in Stockport in 1927. A refreshing alternative is the Elderflower-ini, made using a splash of Kent’s Anno elderflower vodka or some Warner’s Northamptonshire elderflower gin. Anno’s Pink3Berry and Samphire gin is also very dependable, base for a memorable martini.
For something a little more unconventional, you could rustle up a Watercress Gin Martini, using 50ml Twisted Nose gin from Winchester Distillery, 15ml of white Vermouth, two dashes of Bob’s grapefruit bitters (made by a New Zealander in Southend-on-Sea, Essex) and garnished with fresh Hampshire watercress. Served, of course, in a classic, dishwasher-safe Dartington Crystal Martini glass.
Sir Noël Coward famously believed that “A perfect Martini should be made by filling a glass with gin, then waving it in the general direction of Italy.” But now there are plenty of British vermouth companies to shake and stir into your martini. The Great British Vermouth Company, which grows its 24 botanicals on Scotland’s Rosebery Estate, uses Welsh spirit and no added sugar. Owner Michael Kaplan recommends a VVG Martini: “That’s one-third Wermod Dry Great British Vermouth, one third Border Distilleries’ excellent Puffing Billy Steam Vodka and one third Isle of Harris gin. It’s called VVG because of the vermouth, vodka, and gin and because it’s very, very good.” The vermouth comes in handy 187ml bottles.
Although Martini is a Californian invention, Cornwall’s Wrecking Coast recommends a very English twist martini made from its Clotted Cream and Scurvy Navy Strength gins. The latter makes a great Gibson with British pickled onion brine.
“To keep our plough-to- bottle martinis truly Cornish,” says Hugh Jones of Cornwall’s award-winning Colwith Farm Distillery near Lostwithiel, “we use Knightor Vermouth from Trethurgy and a pinch of Cornish Sea Salt , which really works with Aval Dor Vodka. We also have pre-batched martinis made by our in-house mixologist, including a Vesper.”
Suitable garnishes include, of course, olives, which should be pitted or, at a push, filled with slivers of Scottish cured salmon. Anchovies however, won’t wash. I’d accept either lemon or orange peel but never lime. Greenhouse cucumbers grown from seed are fine, as is a sprig of garden rosemary.
Leanne Carr’s Devon “Cove” cocktail-making kit comes perhaps closest to creating the complete modern British Martini. The vodka is made from Devon-grown King Edwards potatoes and Devon spring water. The kit also comprises Gloucestershire Bramley and Gage Dry Vermouth, a pack of “I Love Olives” (provenance unknown) and some Cove Damson Liqueur, allowing you to make a perfectly lovely Damson Martini.
Hopefully that will be enough inspiration for this year’s World Martini Day. Now I’m off to start researching for 2022.