How to Make a Martini at Home

Martinis are on the rise! And not just because they look fancy to sip (they do). Made entirely from shelf-stable ingredients, martinis are easy to make at home, and can be modified in countless ways to suit your particular palate. Made from just vodka, gin and vermouth, martinis are typically clear beverages that can be tweaked to be as dry, dirty, or twisted as you want them. The lingo sounds a bit confusing, but once you master the martini vocab, you’re well on your way to being a martini expert. 

“Martini is the father of all cocktails, originally made with gin, dry vermouth, and orange bitters, and simply garnished with a lemon twist,” says Aviram Turgeman, beverage director at New York’s Monterey, where a martini cart roves the dining room, staffed by a mixologist eager to stir up custom martinis with spritzes of homemade bitters or washes of excotic vermouths. “The historic definition of a cocktail is a stirred mixture of a spirit, vermouth of some sort, and bitters. Of course it evolved over the years to include other liqueur like cordials, syrups, and juices.” In case you’re wondering, that’s where the Cosmopolitan, Apple-tini and ever-popular espresso martini come in.

A dirty martini, however, is more traditional. It’s a martini using olive brine as a replacement to vermouth, depending on your preference, Turgeman explains, with olives typically used as a garnish. A dry martini refers to the amount of vermouth in the mixture. As Turgeman notes, the original martini was half vermouth. Turgeman’s perfect martini ratio is one part vermouth, to five parts gin, plus a dash of orange bitters, stirred with ice to be extra chilled, strained and topped with a lemon twist. Garnishes, of course, can vary by sipper, with Monterey’s signatures ranging from cornichons and chanterelle mushrooms, to pickled kumquats and blue cheese-stuffed olives and beyond. 

Ready to make a martini? Break out your favorite bottle of gin or vodka (there’s no hiding the flavor in this one) and stir it up! Chill your martini glasses in the freezer overnight for an optimum coolness to your cocktail.