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A classic dry martini is made with gin, dry vermouth, and olives or a lemon twist for garnish. It’s one of the most well-known cocktails and remains popular more than 100 years after its creation.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
Ingredient notes
- Gin: A distilled spirit flavored with juniper berries and, occasionally, other botanical herbs or spices.
- Dry vermouth: A fortified wine (made from grapes) that is often pale and always bitter compared to red, sweet vermouth.
Step-by-step instructions
- To a mixing glass filled with ice, add gin and vermouth. Using a bar spoon, stir until mixture is fully combined and well chilled, about 30-45 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with olives or a lemon twist.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 cocktail.
- Glassware: Martinis are traditionally made in a cocktail glass, also known as a martini glass.
- Big batch: Martinis are best prepared individually.
- Extra dry: Made with almost no dry vermouth at all.
- Dirty martini: Add a splash of olive brine to the mixing glass with the gin and garnish with an olive.
- Wet martini: Use equal amounts of gin and dry vermouth.
- Perfect martini: Use equal parts of dry and sweet vermouth.
- Vodka martini: Substitute vodka for the gin.
- Gibson cocktail: Garnish with cocktail onions instead of olives or a lemon twist.
- Vesper martini: Increase the vermouth to 1 ounce, add ½ ounce Lillet blanc with the 3 ounces of gin, and garnish with a lemon twist.
- Churchill martini: Omit the dry vermouth entirely and “should be prepared with gin straight from the freezer while glancing at a closed bottle of dry vermouth.”
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Martini
Ingredients
- 3 ounces gin (6 tablespoons, see note 1)
- 1/2 ounce dry vermouth (1 tablespoon, see note 2)
- 2 pitted, brine-cured olives or lemon twist, for garnish
Instructions
- To a mixing glass filled with ice, add gin and vermouth. Using a bar spoon, stir until mixture is fully combined and well chilled, about 30-45 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with olives or a lemon twist.
Notes
- Gin: A distilled spirit flavored with juniper berries and, occasionally, other botanical herbs or spices.
- Dry vermouth: A fortified wine (made from grapes) that is often pale and always bitter compared to red, sweet vermouth.
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 cocktail.
- Glassware: Martinis are traditionally made in a cocktail glass, also known as a martini glass.
- Big batch: Martinis are best prepared individually.
- Extra dry: Made with almost no dry vermouth at all.
- Dirty martini: Add a splash of olive brine to the mixing glass with the gin and garnish with an olive.
- Wet martini: Use equal amounts of gin and dry vermouth.
- Perfect martini: Use equal parts of dry and sweet vermouth.
- Vodka martini: Substitute vodka for the gin.
- Gibson cocktail: Garnish with cocktail onions instead of olives or a lemon twist.
- Vesper martini: Increase the vermouth to 1 ounce, add ½ ounce Lillet blanc with the 3 ounces of gin, and garnish with a lemon twist.
- Churchill martini: Omit the dry vermouth entirely and “should be prepared with gin straight from the freezer while glancing at a closed bottle of dry vermouth.”
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is the Executive Chef and CEO of Culinary Hill, a popular digital publication in the food space. She loves to combine her Midwestern food memories with her culinary school education to create her own delicious take on modern family fare. Millions of readers visit Culinary Hill each month for meticulously-tested recipes as well as skills and tricks for ingredient prep, cooking ahead, menu planning, and entertaining. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the iCUE Culinary Arts program at College of the Canyons.
