Bar Necessities
The catalog
Notable Classics

Vodka Martini

Cold, clean, classic

Glass Cocktail glass
Method Stirred
Garnish Lemon Twist or Olive

The Martini's smoother cousin. Vodka trades gin's botanical bite for clean, cold neutrality, letting the chill and the dilution do the talking. A blank canvas that lives or dies by how cold you keep it.

Ingredients

Method

Add vodka and dry vermouth to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir for 20-30 seconds until thoroughly chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or an olive.

Jerome Zerbe is credited as inventor per Ted Saucier's 1951 Bottoms Up (not 1952), though earlier documented recipes appear in a 1935 Smirnoff pamphlet. Oscar Haimo's 1943 Cocktail Digest featured a version he renamed 'Kangaroo Kicker.' David Embury's 1948 'The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks' actually criticized the vodka martini rather than documenting it. Post-Prohibition New York origin. Per Difford's Guide #2054.

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