Martinis

[marc weber]

I'm getting close to never leaving the house:

2 oz. pear vodka
1/2 oz. syrup from canned pears
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
1/4 oz. lime juice

Shake with ice and strain.

Any suggestions on refining this?

[Pat Farrell]

Good gin. Pour into shaker with ice, shake, drain into glass.

Raise bottle of vermouth, open lid. Show lid to glass with gin. When gin is sufficiently scared, put lid back on vermouth, put vermouth bottle away.

[Bear Bibeault]

I know that I'd prefer marc's version -- to me, gin has always tasted like drinking a Christmas tree.

[Pat Farrell]

Bear Bibeault wrote:I know that I'd prefer marc's version -- to me, gin has always tasted like drinking a Christmas tree.

of course, that is what its supposed to taste like.

There can be no such thing as marc's "pear vodka" at least in the US, as vodka, by definition, has to be taste free. One can take vodka and put in some pear flavoring, but then its really pear flavored vodka, not vodka made from pears.

One can, of course, make alcohol from nearly anything that has sugar in it.

[Monu Tripathi]

Any suggestions on refining this?

how about few drops of Janx Spirit?

[Ryan McGuire]

marc weber wrote:Any suggestions on refining this?

You're missing the garnish. Let's see... you have pear, ginger and lime. (Given the amount, I'd guess the lime is in there just for freshness; not a lot of lime taste).

Cinnamon
Cinnamon goes great with pears, but you already have the ginger. Garnishing with a cinnamon stick might be over doing it.

Mint
As we've seen from the popularity of mojitos, mint goes well in syrupy sweet drinks -- garnish with a mint sprig? You could even muddle the mint in the glass before pouring in the contents of the shaker. Granted, it's hard to muddle mint in a martini glass.


Banana
Snapple sells/sold bottles of what they were calling Banana Juice. If I recall correctly there was actually as much pear juice in it as there was banana. This "proves" that pear and banana go together. You could add a little banana liquor. You already have the lime juice to cut the syrupiness of it. If you need to cut it more you could add a splash of soda.

So here are my ideas, in the order I'd try them:
--------
Test #1: (Remove ginger and lime, add banana liquor, soda and a banana slice garnish)
2 oz. pear vodka
1/2 oz. syrup from canned pears
1/2 oz. banana liqueur
splash or two of soda
garnish with a slice of banana (maybe on rim of glass, maybe two or three slices on a toothpick)
--------
Test #2: (Remove lime juice, add soda and lime twist)
2 oz. pear vodka
1/2 oz. syrup from canned pears
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
Splash of soda.
Lime twist for garnish.
--------
Test #3: (add mint)
Same recipe as before, but muddle some mint in the glass before adding contents of shaker.

(#2 is probably truest to the original.)

[Ryan McGuire]

Bear Bibeault wrote:I know that I'd prefer marc's version -- to me, gin has always tasted like drinking a Christmas tree.

Depends on the Gin. While all vodkas strive to have the same complete lack of taste, gins revel in their individual characters.

Your "standard" gins are little heavy on the juniper berries. Try Henderson's gin. It has a light, refreshing cucumber taste. It makes a nice summer time gin and tonic, but I wouldn't use it in a martini. I've also tried Magellan brand gin. At first I thought it was ripping off the Sapphire blue bottle, but no... the gin itself is light blue. A reasonable taste for the price.

[Bear Bibeault]

I might give that a try -- even though I'm not much of a drinker to begin with.

If I wanted to taste Christmas tree, there are a couple of Ash Junipers in my front yard that I can suck the sap out of.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

The recipe I used to drink, back when I was a sophisticated Martini-sipping kind of guy, was somewhat similar to Pat's (technically this is a vodka Gibson):

1 bottle of Absolut, kept in the freezer
1 bottle of dry vermouth, in the fridge
3 pickled pearl onions
Wasbi peas

1) Rinse a martini glass with vermouth, dumping the extra in the sink.
2) Stick the onions on a toothpick and drop it into the glass.
3) Fill up with Absolut.
4) Consume with wasabi peas.

[marc weber]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:...back when I was a sophisticated Martini-sipping kind of guy...

Ah, but I'm not sophisticated, as evidenced by the canned pear syrup.

Still, the vermouth and pickled pearl onions sound intriguing. Given my lack of sophistication, I have to ask: Are the wasabi peas a side, or are they actually in the martini?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

marc weber wrote:

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:...back when I was a sophisticated Martini-sipping kind of guy...

Ah, but I'm not sophisticated, as evidenced by the canned pear syrup.

Still, the vermouth and pickled pearl onions sound intriguing. Given my lack of sophistication, I have to ask: Are the wasabi peas a side, or are they actually in the martini?

They are instead of beer nuts

[Ryan McGuire]

As long as we're comparing Martini preferences...

I go for a Perfect Martini. It uses a little dry and a little sweet vermouth. Bombay Sapphire, up, olives. At home I have almond-stuffed olives, but I'll settle for pimento when I'm at a restaurant.

Unless I'm mistaken, using cocktail onions as the garnish turns a Martini into a Gibson. I've never heard of a Vodka Gibson before. ...not that there's anything wrong with it.

[marc weber]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:... They are instead of beer nuts

Cool! Google gave me that impression, but one never knows about martini culture.

[W. Joe Smith]

Here is my martini recipe:

1. Get gin, vodka, shaker, and
2. Set all of them off to the side, get bigger glass.
3. Put ice into glass.
4. Pour Jameson's Irish whiskey into glass.
5. Enjoy.

[marc weber]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:...technically this is a vodka Gibson...

Tried one last night. I think I could get into these.

Bought some wasabi peas later. Will definitely need to try these with the Gibson.

[Ryan McGuire]

A while back, I wrote:
Your "standard" gins are little heavy on the juniper berries. Try Henderson's gin. It has a light, refreshing cucumber taste. It makes a nice summer time gin and tonic, but I wouldn't use it in a martini. I've also tried Magellan brand gin. At first I thought it was ripping off the Sapphire blue bottle, but no... the gin itself is light blue. A reasonable taste for the price.

s/Henderson's/Hendrick's/g

Their site is a cute way to waste a few minutes.

[marc weber]

marc weber wrote:...
2 oz. pear vodka
1/2 oz. syrup from canned pears
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
1/4 oz. lime juice

Shake with ice and strain...

I've increased my quantities by roughly 50%...

3 oz. pear vodka (kept in freezer)
3/4 oz. syrup from canned pears (refrigerated)
3/4 oz. ginger liqueur (refrigerated)
1/3 oz. lime juice (refrigerated)

Shake with ice and strain into chilled glass, then float a thin lime slice on top.

AND I now have the recipie for the ginger-pear martrini I was trying to duplicate:

2 1/2 oz. Grey Goose pear vodka
1 oz. Triple Sec (or Cointreau)
1/4 oz. ginger syrup
1/2 oz. white cranberry juice