![]() June 19th, 2013
09:00 AM ET
While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday. It’s five o’clock somewhere. Bottoms up! June 19 is National Dry Martini Day. Perhaps it’s the long-stemmed, wide-mouthed glass, or maybe it's the uncompromising sting of alcohol, but martinis can be intimidating to a novice cocktail drinker. Not to fear - with a little knowledge and a touch of bravery you’ll be enjoying this classic tipple before anyone has time to make a bad James Bond joke. Vermouth is a flavored, fortified wine of Italian origin that can either be sweet or dry. As you might have guessed, a dry martini uses dry vermouth but that’s not the only way to make a martini dry. The less vermouth in a martini, the dryer it is. So, dry can also refer to the alcohol ratio. As if that wasn’t enough to think about, you could also order your dry martini dirty (with a few drops of olive juice), with a lemon twist, with a cocktail onion (that makes it a Gibson) - the well of possibilities will never run dry. Knowing how you like your martini can be tricky, but luckily, the best way to figure that out is to keep on sipping. Read more on National Dry Martini Day |
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The dry martini is a simply perfect drink. It's wonderful there is an entire day dedicated to it. I personally prefer vodka over gin. Grey Goose has a pretty solid video explaining how to make it. Check it out, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbRfGTeBxYE
And if traditional martinis seems scary, gin and vermouth are not your thing, or you're watching your waistline; check out SkinnyTinis top picks from the year for great low calorie ways to celebrate this national holiday! http://eatdrinkandbeskinny.com/national-martini-day/
Even better than a dry martini is a Very Dry Spanked Martini. With your shaker full of ice cubes, poor the vodka (or gin) over and let it rest. While it rests, take each martini glass and gently pour one or two drops of dry vermouth and swirl the glass so that it gets a very thin skin of vermouth on the inside. Pour out any remaining vermouth. Take the shaker and spank the vodka with VERY VIGOROUS SHAKING. Strain the ice-crystal-filled vodka into the glass and VOILA. A variation to an olive is to serve an olive-onion-olive. This is known as a Spanked Martian Martini (looks like a 3rd eye).