Shaken? Stirred? Wet? Dry? Burnt? Dirty?
The martini comes with its own lingo–and, as James Bond famously
emphasized, everyone has a preference in how the versatile drink is made.
With a name and a pedigree like that, you might imagine that “martini”
comes from an elegant town in Italy or an attractive person’s surname. But
the truth is, nobody really knows.
“There’s no cocktail more distinctly American than the martini,” writes
April Fulton for NPR’s The Salt. “It’s strong, sophisticated and sexy.
It’s everything we hope to project while ordering one.”
But it best-known origin story don’t sound terribly sexy, unless you like
camping for weeks near a gold claim in the California backwoods. “Many
historians follow the martini back to a miner who struck gold in
California during the Gold Rush,” she writes. “The story goes that a miner
walked into a bar and asked for a special drink to celebrate his new
fortune. The bartender threw together what he had on hand — fortified wine
(vermouth) and gin, and a few other goodies — and called it a Martinez,
after the town in which the bar was located.” The city of Martinez stands
by this story, she notes.
Another story, told by journalist and drink historian Barnaby Conrad III,
is that the martini was invented by “Professor” Jerry Thomas, the man who
professionalized bartending and wrote several books on the topic. Conrad
acknowledges the Martinez story, but he thinks the drink was actually
concocted by Thomas in San Francisco. The second edition of one of
Thomas’s books, The Bon-Vivant's Companion, contains a recipe for a drink
known as the Martinez, writes William Grimes for The New York Times. But
that recipe is for a drink that contains a maraschino cherry, sweet
vermouth and sweetened gin.
Maybe that was some variation on the martini, writes Grimes. After all,
some early recipes for the martini called for “gin and vermouth in a 50-50
ratio, and almost always ... orange bitters." That recipe "does not look
very much like the mercilessly dry vodka martini of the present day,” he
writes.
But others argue “that the history of the Martini name is simply a matter
of branding,” writes Sipsmith London. “Martini & Rossi, an Italian sweet
vermouth that was first produced in 1863, seems to be an obvious source,”
Sipsmith writes. After all, asking for a “gin and Martini” could easily
become asking for a martini.
Those are just three of the theories–another links the drink to a
New York bartender named Martini di Arma di Taggia, Sipsmith writes.
Still, at the end of the day, as you’re enjoying a martini, the drink’s
origin probably doesn’t matter much.
The drink is clear, but the
martini’s origin story is opaque. Elegant, no?