9,204 Different REAL Martinis and Counting…

In The Joy of Mixology, Gary Regan makes the argument that the Manhattan is “the best cocktail on earth.” His rationale is partially based on “digesting all the variables” that influence a Manhattan’s taste. Gary probably knows more about this cocktail than anyone on the planet, and he argues that the best Manhattans consider the properties of their whiskey appropriately. For example, a spicier whiskey, such as a rye, needs more vermouth to correctly balance the drink. Milder whiskeys, such as a wheated bourbon, needs less vermouth. Therefore, to successfully create an ideal Manhattan, the bartender must have an extensive knowledge of whiskies, vermouth, and bitters. More importantly, to become a cocktail artisan, one must understand how the ingredients work together. Amid these circumstances, it is easy to understand why Gary claims the Manhattan to be the “best”.

Now, I would certainly never attempt to refute anything that Gary Regan has said. The man drools more bartending knowledge in his sleep than I posses. However, the term “best” is rather opinionated, allowing for me to add my own two cents. Additionally, Gary’s arguments for Manhattan supremacy have recently become applicable to the Martini. Now, I am not going to claim that the Martini is great because it was one of the first or is more iconic. Instead, let’s just consider the same concepts of complexity with the Martini.

THE MARTINI

3 oz Gin
1 oz Vermouth
2 Dashes Bitters (Orange Preferred)
Olive for Garnish

Combine all the ingredients in a tin and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the olive.

Simple enough? Maybe so - 10 years ago. Gin’s popularity was in the gutter and few brands were available to consumers. What a difference a decade has made! Gin has gained so much popularity that it is hard to keep up with all of the available brands. Consequently, the impact on the Martini is diversity. Just as the Manhattan is influenced by the abundant number of whiskies available, the Martini has become exponentially complex as new gins have developed. Bitters manufacturing has expanded as well, which equally influences both the Manhattan and the Martini. The combinations seem endless, but I came up with a ROUGH calculation of the possibilities for the Martini drinker.

The Rules: This task was a little more difficult than I expected. I generally keep track of most new products, especially gins, that are hitting the market, but, WOW, there are just so many more than I thought. I started listing them of the top of my head initially, got to about 30, and decided I needed some help. After surveying a few online merchants with huge selections, I settled on the list below, which I am sure is still incomplete. I excluded crap gins (such as Skol, McCormick, and any other company that produces a type of each major spirit and makes me want to vomit) and gins that are not traditionally used in Martinis (such as Holland’s gins). A lot of discussion has been made about whether some newer gins make good martinis and even count as gins. Some of my favorite articles covering this issue have been written by Gary Regan in the San Francisco Chronicle and Eric Asimov in the New York Times, but for the purpose of argumentation, let’s just count those gins that meet a minimum quality standard and could conceptually be used in a Martini. Vermouth has to be French Vermouth, and the bitters have to be either a basic (generally angostura flavored or similar) or orange, which was used originally. We will let Stirrings Blood Orange bitters in to be fair, but Collins chemical-orange-death-mixture is out. Other flavored bitters, while great in Martinis, are excluded just to draw the line somewhere. Alright, here’s the list of options:

TYPES OF FRENCH VERMOUTH

1. Boissiere
2. Cinzano
3. Dolin
4. Gallo
5. Kedem
6. Lejon
7. Martini & Rossi
8. Noilly Prat
9. Stock
10. Tribuno
11. Versasi
12. Vya

TYPES OF GIN

1. Aviation
2. Bafferts
3. Beefeater
4. Beefeater Wet
5. Blackwood’s
6. Blackwood’s 60
7. Bluecoat
8. Bombay
9. Bombay Sapphire
10. Boodles
11. Broker’s
12. Bulldog
13. Burnett’s
14. Cascade Mountain
15. Citadelle
16. Cork
17. Damrak
18. Desert Juniper
19. DH Krahn
20. Dogfish
21. G’Vine
22. Gabriel Boudier
23. Gilbey’s
24. Glenmore
25. Gordon’s
26. Gordon’s Distillers Cut
27. Hampton’s
28. Hendrick’s
29. Iceberg
30. Indigo
31. Juniper Green
32. Junipero
33. Kensington
34. Magellan
35. Mercury
36. Miller’s
37. Miller’s Westbourne Strength
38. No. 209
39. Northshore
40. Old Raj (46% ABV)
41. Old Raj (55% ABV)
42. Parliament
43. Plymouth
44. Plymouth Navy Strength
45. Quintessential
46. Rogue Spruce
47. Sarticious
48. Seagram’s
49. Seagram’s Lime Twisted
50. Seagram’s Reserve
51. South
52. Tanqueray
53. Tanqueray Rangpur
54. Tanqueray Ten
55. Tower of London
56. Van Gogh
57. Whitley Neill
58. Xoriguer
59. Zuidam

TYPES OF BITTERS

1. Angostura
2. Angostura (Orange)
3. A.V. Wees
4. A.V. Wees (Oranje)
5. Bitter Truth
6. Bitter Truth (Orange)
7. Fee Brother’s
8. Fee Brother’s (Orange)
9. Hermes
10. Hermes (Orange)
11. Peychaud’s
12. Regan’s (Orange)
13. Stirring’s (Blood Orange)

POSSIBLE MARTINIS: 9,204!

That’s right; with no repetition, there are 9,204 possible different combinations of 1 type of vermouth, 1 type of gin, and 1 type of bitters! And, as with the Manhattan, different degrees of vermouth work better with different strengths and flavors of gin. One could even make the argument that the variations in gin are more extreme than whiskies because of the diverse amount of herbs and other spices used. Further, not all gins work well with all vermouths. My favorites in each category are Vya Vermouth and Old Raj for example, but these two simply don’t work well together in my opinion. This is partially because Old Raj’s saffron elements seem to clash with some of Vya’s complexity; use Noilly Prat with Old Raj instead. This is just one example of the adjustments that need to be made for different ingredients.

Previously, when gin was more uniform in taste, the alterations were less essential. But as the gin market expands, bartenders need to be more aware of the relationship between their ingredients. So which is more difficult, the Manhattan or the Martini? Who knows? Gary’s original argument probably still applies because gin has yet to outnumber types of whiskies and probably never will. However, all other issues aside, the increasing diversity of gin makes the Martini a flexible contender. The question ultimately is unimportant; instead find out which of each you like the best. Here’s mine:

MY FAVORITE MARTINI (CURRENTLY)

2 ½ oz Northshore Gin
1 oz Vya Vermouth
3 Dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
Lemon Twist for Garnish

MY FAVORITE MANHATTAN (CURRENTLY)

2 ¼ oz Sazerac 6 Rye
1 oz Vya Sweet Vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Maraschino Cherry for Garnish

Are they the best? Is one better than the other? Who knows, but they are my favorites right now. I have had a lot of Martinis, but nowhere near 9,204. I won’t try some by choice, and others I probably won’t have the opportunity to experience. If I just tried one of the possible combinations every day, it would take over 25 years to complete the list of combinations, and new gin brands are certainly going to continue to appear as well, making this objective impossible. Nevertheless, the quest for the unobtainable holy grail of the Martini is more about the journey than the drink.

Follow-Up Note: In a strange sort of coincidence that would almost only happen with the best of cocktails, a couple other blogs I am big fans of wrote on the Martini when I was working on this post or just before. I like each of these blogs and wanted to go ahead and recommend them as other readings related to this post and as great blogs! Check out Married with Dinner and Oh Gosh! if you liked this post.