May 11, 2023 • 37 mins
This cocktail (and its glass) are American icons — but why? How? And should you order it shaken or stirred? In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren dip into the shaky history and storied science behind the martini.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Ree and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have a classic episode for you about the Martini cocktail
and glass.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We did talk a lot about glass wear, Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We did. Yeah, this one is from March of twenty eighteen. WHOA, yeah,
I know, right, I have to really parse that my
brain for a second. Okay, yeah, no, I don't know
what that means anymore. It's okay, Oh okay. Well, was
there any reason it was on your mind?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
No?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Absolutely not, or I suppose it perhaps should have been,
because I very recently did an episode about Martini glasses
on one of my other shows, Brain Stuff, And for
that I definitely dipped into our notes here and added
a little bit, a little bit of stuff. Yes, but
(01:03):
I had forgotten entirely that that even happened, because, as
we have said before on the show, I jettison all
information from my brain the second I'm done recording, or
like the second i'm done like writing the title and
description out, and then I don't know what I recorded
about yesterday. I barely know what I'm recording about now.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's all a mystery and Martini's don't help. Nope, Nope,
they don't give Drake responsibly.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, always, always, always, yes, I am.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I don't know if I've told you this, Lauren, but
I've had to take a break from horror movies.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh my goodness, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Because I have watched so many it was getting out
of hand. And if everyone listening, you might be like.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Really, yes, No, I believe Annie when she says that,
because I have some inkling of how many horror movies
she's been watching. But I feel like that's probably a
conservative estimate, and that conservative estimate is a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So yes.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
But part of it is I have these like really
vivid dreams. Sure, great, okay, you know the horror part
comes in and then you're like scared to sleep, and
I already have trouble sleeping, so it's kind of an issue.
I did have one about a kind of Martini cocktail
(02:35):
situation now my ball in it, which I know is
that thing that I've seen before. It was in an
original anti brain thing that was happening, but the image
stuck with me for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It was quite and I was like, where did this
come from?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I think it might have been because of our our
D and D hangout. I know I've talked about it before,
but I often like drinks with like gin sure and fruit,
and so that usually means I get a coop glass,
a coop glass, and I have a lot of trouble
as a clumsy person holding a coop glass. So I
(03:15):
think my like stress around that glass translated into D
and D and this martini nightmare.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Like I don't know, Okay, I could have been anything, really,
but have dreams are dreams are wacky, but but all right, Well,
I'm glad to hear that you are taking a perhaps
responsible step back from horror films.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I haven't had a regular old martini and a good
hot minute. I think, like at the very beginning, like
or like in the kind of early beginning of the pandemic,
kind of like the first time that I got even
like a to go cocktail from a restaurant, I felt
(04:04):
like I was finally back in civilization, right, Like I
was like, Oh, this is what it's like to be
a human person, right. I mean I also felt the
same way eating like a large pile of wings, but yes,
which I ordered the two together, so it was pretty right.
(04:24):
That was a good afternoon twenty twenty didn't have to
be honest, a lot of great afternoons, but that was
one of them.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yes, I mean those things had become quite special. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, I hear you. Well, I guess we should
let pass Annie and Lauren take it away.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Sure, Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Reese
and I'm Lauren Voclbaum. And this is another cocktail hour.
Today we're talking about the Martini.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And this is a very special cocktail hour.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh yeah, it's the first one where we're actually having
a cocktail while we're recording it. So yeah, cheers, y'all.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Cheers and cheers Dylan, Uh huh, cheers. This is my
first time having Martini.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
How are you enjoying it?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I actually really like it. It's it's not what I expected.
I got it extra dirty, which we'll talk about more,
but basically it means all of all.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of Brian Yeah, juice, Brian.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, and I really like it.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I technically got a vesper. I can also mention that
in a moment. But yeah, let's let's start this episode
off because the Martini is a huge cultural icon in America,
So let's start off with some some some quotes yes.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And this is one of my favorite things about the Martini,
because I did. I didn't know much about it, to
be honest, and it inspired so many quotes. There's so
many great quotes in this episode, so here are few.
Historian Bernard de Voto described the Martini as.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The supreme American gift to world culture.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Satirist HL men Can called it the only American invention
as perfect as the sonnet.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That is some high high phrase, right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
A nineteen forties newspaper columnist wrote, more people get their
glasses broken and arrested and divorced on account of Martini's
than for any other reason. Dang could be true. And
here's a poem, a Martini.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Poem by Ogden Nashialists.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yes, eh, there is something about a Martini, A tingle
remarkably pleasant, a yellow, a mellow Martini.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I wish that I had one at present.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
There is something about a Martini air the dying and
dancing begin. And to tell you, the truth is not
the verymooth. I think perhaps it's the gin. Yeah, thank you, Lauren,
thank you. But here this brings us to something we
should note.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Oh, drink responsibly, y'all, especially when your drinks have almost
four ounces of liquor in them.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yes, yes, please be responsible.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Don't be breaking any glasses or getting divorces on account
of martini's.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
No, please please do not, because it's it's partially the
very mouth, but it is also definitely partially the gin. Yes,
Ogdenash was correct. So the Martini? What is it?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
According to a bar like in Savannah, Georgia called Gin
and Friends, it is just about anything you can imagine
with a.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Garnish of twigs. I actually really like that bar.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
But uh oh, I think you probably can get a
traditional Martinia. There's over one thousand different martinis. I believe
maybe it's hundreds. I'm probably exaggerating.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Uh pedantic, Lauren is like, that's not a.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Mort Yes, she reacted very viscerally.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Classically, the martini is a very specific thing. It's just
gin and dry white vermouth and a roughly six to
one ratio three ounces of gin and about half an
ounce of vermouth. You shake or stir this with ice
and then strain it into a glass, either with a
twist of lemon or an olive for garnish. At this
most simple iteration, it is a showcase for the gin
(08:23):
and the vermouth, and the drink will taste simultaneously sort
of clean and rich, with notes including herbal, piny, floral,
and savory. Yep, would you say that's what you're experiencing
right now?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I am, and Lauren got to see me. I order
the martini moments ago, and there was a look of
panic on my face when the bartender said the twist
dirty olive, and luckily I made the correct, non stupid decision.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I did not ask for the twist.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I asked for olive dirty, oh right, which and I
means together yes, and I mean stupid, as in, I'm
sure the lemon one or the twist one is also lovely.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But I did not ask for all three, right, yes, No, okay,
embarrassment avoided.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Lowell Edmonds wrote about this classic Martini. It's pleasure, which
is not voluptuous but astringent, can only be expressed by oxymoron,
sensuous coldness, opulent dryness, mysterious clarity, alluring purity.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I love it because again, it's one of those things.
If you just read that last bit, I would have
no idea what you were talking about, but I would
want it part of it right right? This cocktail was
the favorite of many famous people, from Winston Churchill to.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
FDR, Himingway all over him.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I feel like every cocktail was his favorite, depending on
when you ask whatever cocktail was in his hand. Himmingway
used a martini as an insult in Across the River
and into the trees when one character orders Montgomery's fifteen
to one, in other words, fifteen parts gin to one
part vermu. Yeah, the order was meant as a dig
(10:05):
at Commander Montgomery, who allegedly would not go into a
battle without a fifteen to one soldier advantage. The small
amount of vermouth was meant to symbolize his small amount
of courage. I should keep that in mind if I
ever want to insult somebody, you can insult someone with
a cocktail.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yes, I already have like a vague plan for revenge bakery.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We'll revisit that in another episode.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
According to some sources, FDR would host a daily Martini
Hour in which he made martinis that were too heavy
on the vermouth, like.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Two to one gin to vermouth, which is a way
that some people drink them, but it's certainly heavier than
the norm. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, FDR apparently drank them this way, and the White
House Council was not a fan of this preparation method,
and one would hope surreptitiously pour it into the potted plant.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Then again, when fdr served it up to Stalin in
nineteen four forty three, Stalin was a first time Martini drinker.
Khrushchev declared the drink as America's lethal weapon.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Ah wow, Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
One of Julia Child's favorite drinks was the reverse Martini.
That's five to one vermouth to gin, the reverse Martini,
m m. And people love getting up in arms about
that vermouth to liquor ratio. Supposedly, Churchill said about it,
I would like to observe the vermouth from across the
room while I drink my martini, Or that one should
(11:32):
glance at the vermouth bottle briefly while pouring the juniper
distolate freely.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well he was British.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Or possibly that you should drink ice called gin while
bowing in the general direction of France, or that you
should hold the vermouth bottle over the shaker and just
let light shine through it.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, Churchill. That first quote.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Looking across the room at the vermouth has also been
attributed to Alfred hitchcock. Some folks just do a vermouth
rinseat of adding it to the shaker like utasa quarter
ounce or so of remoth into the cocktail glass, twirl
and then poured out before straining in your ice, shaken
or stirred gin and supposedly Lyndon B. Johnson preferred this version.
M h but hey, y'all, what the heck is vermouth?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I had no idea, enjoyed did this?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's Vermouth is a wine that has been infused with
various botanicals, specifically wormwood, also probably including saffron, coriander, chemomial
and or juniper, and then fortified with a little bit
of a neutral spirit like udaged brandy. And the dry
white version was created in France around eighteen hundred. This
is definitely whole episode kind of territory. That's a very
(12:42):
brief yeah definition. Yeah yeah. And while we're defining things,
gin is a neutral spirit that is also infused with
botanicals including juniper and a whole mess of other herbs
and spices. We talked about it in our Gin and
Tonic episode and also visited a local distillery and like
made a video and a batch of gin. Yeah about it?
(13:06):
So go check those out if you would like to
learn more about gin. Some folks do use vodka instead
of gin to make martinises. You can also add in
a bit of olive brine for that dirty martini, or
a drop or two of bitters, specifically orange bitters. My
bartender slash chef friend Darryl makes a version with a
few drops of olive oil floated on top instead of
(13:27):
an olive garnish. And if you add a cocktail onion
instead of an olive, it's a Gibson.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
If you use both vodka and gin, add the vermouth
and then have a lemon twist, that's a vesper, Yeah,
which is what I'm drinking right now.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Mm hmm. Oh. And that teeny suffix.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Oh yeah, those billions of martinis that you can order
at places.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, you may have noticed this before. You can get
a lot of drinks that end in teenie. Appletini is
the first one that comes to my mind because of
the cubs quote Arcini, please easy on the teenie. And
this has nothing really to do with the martini the drink,
and all to do with the V shaped martini glass.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Oh yeah, which I'm going to get into it in
a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yes, and I also read sex in the City helped
inspire a lot of teeny drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah yeah, I mean they were drinking cosmos out of
the Martini glass. It became a whole thing.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Okay, Okay, So that's the basics. But let's talk about
some history.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, this is one of those great ones. But first
let's take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And we're back, Thank you sponsor. Yes, okay, Martini history. Yeah,
since eighteen eighty two, the combination of gin and Vermouth
has gone by the Martini, the Martina, the martine, the Martini,
the Martineau, and the Martinez.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And these early versions were sweeter, more like Manhattan's that
were just made with gin instead of whiskey, so therefore
including bitters and sugar syrup and currosow. Though by the
turn of the twentieth century, the latter two ingredients, the
sugar syrup and currosow, had fallen by the wayside, and
if anything was to be added to that requisite gin
in Vermouth, it would be bitters and orange bitters to
(15:25):
kind of make up for that currosow's absence.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Rights and as these names might indicate multiple origin stories, exist.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Oh, it wouldn't be a cocktail hour without.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It, wouldn't it very much?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Reminds me of the margarita I love how it's just
we need a name and that's who invented it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
End of episode.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, it's possible that more than one person invented the
same drink around the same time. A story published in
The New York Times in nineteen oh four claims a
drink was the brainchild of a local judiciary named Randolph Martin,
but those who knew him well didn't seem to agree.
Champagne was his alcohol of choice, and apparently he rarely
(16:04):
strayed from it, so his friends were like nope. In
eighteen eighty four, New York Cocktail Guide included a recipe
for a Martinez, and because of this, in the nineteen forties,
people started theorizing that maybe the drink came from Martinez, California. Ah,
this one gets really muddy, but as the story goes,
(16:25):
a gold miner, looking to celebrate his findings, ordered the
drink special. But whatever was the drink special the bartender
did not have, so he whipped up something based on
what he did have, which happened to be Jen Vermouth
and a few extra things the bartender. The bartender called
it a Martinez after the town. This is the official
(16:46):
story on the Martinez website, although I read many alternate versions,
including one where the miner he was actually celebrating. He
wasn't celebrating at all. He was out of money, a
fine gold, was miserable.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So it's like to fix me whatever you've got.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yes, yes, so take it with a grain of salt.
There's a Martini pun in there, but I can't make
it right now.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's okay, It's okay.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
San Francisco also lays claim to the Martini, as does
New York City. In eighteen sixty three, an Italian Vermouth
company was marketing one of its products as a Martini.
I recognize it. Martini and Rossi Vermouth.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh yeah, still a very large player in the field.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Another story goes that after France left Syria in nineteen
forty six, a Syrian man with the last name Martini
relocated to Paris and opened a bar. At the time, Martini's,
if not name, the drink did already exist, but Martini
the person's contribution was the addition of an olive as
(17:52):
sort of an homage to his home country where all
of our big product. Oh yeah, th realist even compiled
it neat almost conspiracy level.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They're all connected, timeline.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Ah it hegans with a bartender named Martini Diarma Ditagia
making Martini at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York for
one John g Rockefeller Okay m hm, who then in
turn made it for his.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Buddies on Wall Street.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
But then Rockefeller's son, John Junior, helped make Prohibition happen.
But then Prohibition was a failure, and he was instrumental
in reversing it, And then he supervised the opening of
a place that ended up serving a lot of Martini's,
the Rainbow Room, and eventually the Rainbow Room was the
scene of the Martini's revival in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Wow. Yeah, that's intense, It is right, It's true, that's
very intense. But who knows, not us at any rate
up through Prohibition. You know, for the first four decades
or so of the Martini's history, the drink was not
served in the Martini glass because it hadn't been invented yet.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
There you go, Probably the rounder slightly more forgiving champagne
coop would have been used, as it was for many
drinks served up at the time, up as opposed to
on the rocks. In the twenties, though at the height
of Art Deco, someone somewhere made that coop angular, you know,
a cone rather than a semisphere. It may have made
(19:27):
its official debut at the nineteen twenty five Paris Exhibition.
By the nineteen thirties, this glass design was firmly associated
with the Martini cocktail, a clean design for a clean drink.
And meanwhile, prohibition had made gin America's darling liquor, as
it was much easier to doupe than whiskey, which gets
its flavor from aging. Kind of pour juniper oil into
(19:49):
some booze base and you're like, oh, it's sort of
like gin.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's that Gin.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
An article from American Heritage Magazine suggests that the Martini's
simplicity and its glasses design made it a symbol of
the modern American urbanite, a and I quote defiant retort
to Bible Belt intolerance and Victorian repression. That is quite
a lot to put on a glass that's heavy, right, yeah,
(20:17):
for a glass and a cocktail. By the nineteen forties
and fifties, with the rise of mid century modern design,
the lip of that Martini glass would grow wider and
the stem longer, and through industrialization, this glassware became available
for home use for the growing middle class. So the
Martini and its glass, and partially through the enthusiasm of
(20:38):
folks like FDR, became symbols of power and modernity. A
New York Times article in nineteen fifty eight called it
the symbol of our civilization.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
And if you're familiar with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, saxophonist
Paul Desmond would later say that in developing their sound quote,
I think I had it in the back of my
mind that I wanted to sound like a dry Martini.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Wow. Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I have to say that I didn't know much about martinis,
but I did always have that association with the glass
as it being kind of this rich city.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah yeah, wealthy, yeah, urbane.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Yeah, and which is fascinating because I didn't know much
about it, but that still cultural.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, huh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Vodka started really gaining popularity in the fifties. At the
beginning of the decade, about five hundred thousand cases were sold,
but by nineteen fifty five, that number skyrocketed to five
million cases. It passed jin in terms of sales numbers
in the US in nineteen sixty seven and Whiskey in
nineteen seventy six. The first vodka martinis went by the
(21:49):
name Kangaroo Cocktail.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But by nineteen fifty one, with the publication of this
really posh like Cocktails and Nude Photos cocktail guide called
Bottoms Up and Andy just did the biggest die roll,
the Kangaroo Cocktail was sort of officially unofficially rebranded the
vodka Martini.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Rights and James Bond was instrumental in the popularity of
the vodka Martini. The first time it appeared in the
James Bond universe was in the nineteen fifty six Diamonds
Are Forever the film not the book. Okay, Yes, his
first instruction of shake and not stood. I used to
have a really good Shohn Conner impression, but I doubt
(22:33):
it anymore. Oh No, actually I probably never did, but
I thought I did anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Came two years later in the nineteen fifty eight Doctor No.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And by the nineteen seventies, vodka Martini's had begun to
outsell jin. Martini's kind of parallel with vodka to gin
sales in general. M hm.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And this brings us to Martini politics.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Martini politics, I know, the Three Martini Lunch and class warfare.
Oh yeah, this is actually huge and kind of very serious.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
During the nineteen fifties and sixties, the Madmen era executives
and businessmen took part in this thing called the Three
Martini Lunch, which is what it sounds like. The working
class did not like this, and the three Martini Lunch
was it was a tax right off and the deductions
it was seen as deductions for the rich.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
President John F.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Kennedy took the first real political swife at the Three
Martini Lunch in the sixties, but the real fighting got
started in nineteen seventy two with George McGovern. He said,
there is something fundamentally wrong with the tax system when
it allows a corporate executive to deduct his twenty dollars
Martini lunch while a working man cannot deduct the price
(23:52):
of his bologney sandwich. Jimmy Carter took up the mantle
in nineteen seventy six, decrying the fact that the American
working class was having to pay for the three martini lunch,
to which his opponent for the nineteen seventy six presidential
election replied much later, the three martini lunch is the
epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful,
(24:16):
a belly full, and a snoopful.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
At the same time, m h.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Popular culture was swaying towards Carter's interpretation, though, an article
in Esquire in nineteen seventy three called the martini a bitter,
medicinal tasting beverage that represented everything from phony bourgeois values
and social snobbery to jaded alcoholism and latent masochism.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Wow. And it was actually President Reagan that mostly did
away with the three martini lunch in nineteen eighty six,
and then President Clinton with the final nail in that coffin,
and the detractors mockingly called it the two martini lunch.
Is like, you can't handle your alcohol, You're getting spoppy.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You couldn't take.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The three martinis? Yeah, oh weird, weird, I'm like sick burn.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Question marks behind it. Meanwhile, by then the nineteen eighties
bizarre be sour mixed cocktail culture was in full swing,
and everything about drinking was bigger and sweeter and more
mass produced. And amidst all this, the Martini glass had
not lost its feel of sleek sophistication. So the glass
(25:31):
just got bigger and everything got served in it, especially
these sweet fruity drinks that were meant to appeal to
women with their shoulder pads as big as their ambitions.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
See, ladies, you really can have it all.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
This association would stick through the next couple decades. Think
of that cosmo from Sex in the City with many
bars Martini menus, not including a whiff of the actual
Martini cocktail until the craft cocktail moved of the twenty
teens brought it back.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah, and this I didn't know about any of this,
but I did see there's a restaurant. It might be
in Savannah, but it has a three martini lunch on it,
and I thought it was just a weird like so yeah, yeah,
like a gimmick. Yeah, from that restaurant. And when I
was reading this, we're like, oh, realization was just dawning
(26:23):
on my face.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh yeah, Yeah. There's an episode of Bad Men where
the multiple martini lunch plays a very big factor. And
ends poorly for everyone involved, as.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I imagine it would. As I imagine it would. That
brings us to now and to some science.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yes, but first a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh yes, thank you. So this is our kind of
science and act section because I have a few important notes.
Not all of them are purely scientific, but okay, first,
one important note about vermouth. Okay, although being fortified, an
open bottle of remouth will last longer than an open
(27:16):
bottle of regular wine. Due to that fortification, it will
still go off after a couple of months. Yeah, so
you know, don't just keep a half used bottle of
remooth sitting on your bar. At the very least, keep
your opened bottle in the fridge for extra staying power,
and use it within like three to four months. It's
really great for cooking as well as in cocktails, or
(27:38):
even by itself on the rocks if you get a
good enough one. So I promise it's not at all
difficult to go through. Use it up. It'll be delicious.
Deglaze all of your pants with it. You'll thank me later.
I do have a slight kill joy corner for you today.
The witty and slightly blue quatrain about Marche that is
(28:00):
often attributed to Dorothy Parker was almost certainly not said
or written by Dorothy Parker. A The quatraine goes, I
like to have a Martini two at the very most,
after three, I'm under the table. After four, I'm under
my host, which I think really has to be said
that in that Trisatlantic accent. I believe Dorothy Parker had
(28:23):
grown so famous for quips that misattribution is pretty common,
and this appears. This quatrain appears who have originated in
the University of Virginia's undergrad humor magazine, The Harlequin, not
from Parker, although that's no reason to love her, or
Martini's or responsible drinking any less. For the record, Dorothy
(28:44):
Parker preferred Scotch.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Scotch is lovely.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It is good to know. Also, one last bit of
e femera. I read this article in Imbibe magazine. It
was written by one Wayne Curtis. He was writing about
the Martini glass, and it contains such a sick burn
that I wanted to share it. The Martini glass is
one of those objects appealing in concept, but disappointing in reality,
(29:11):
member of a category that includes cotton candy and the
films of Adam Sandler.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Oh ah, that's pretty harsh.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I laughed out loud in my house and like startled
my cats, So yeah, I wanted to share it. I
happen also to agree on all counts.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Then again, I'm the guy who drinks everything out of
jam jars because I cannot be trusted with stemware.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I'm the same, although I have broken several stemless glasses
as well, so clearly I'm just plastics.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, here you go.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
How classy everything a fello cat? That's me.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
This brings us to a question that I've wondered about it. Yeah, uh,
shaken are stirred?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Oh okay, this is today's science portion, and there is
science to shaken versus stirred, Because okay, the purpose of
shaking a cocktail with ice is a to chill the
drink and b to mix in lighter ingredients like your gin,
your vodka. You're whiskey with things that are less easily mixed,
(30:18):
like heavy sweet liqueurs or simple syrup or stuff like eggs.
If all your ingredients are lighter, as with a martini,
which is just fortified wine and gin, shaking is unnecessary
at best. Furthermore, shaking a cocktail with ice in a
shaker will chip little bits of ice into the drink,
(30:38):
which melt down quickly, which water the drink down and
also adds in tiny little air bubbles. And this might
well be what you're going for with some cocktails, but
bartenders will tell you that with a martini it can
ruin the silky mouthfeel that you're looking for from the liquor.
Stirring with ice, on the other hand, chills the drink
(30:58):
a little bit less than you get with shaking, but
it does so without agitating the ingredients so much and
does not chip the ice, so less water gets into
your cocktail. According to MIT research scientist Shannon Stewart, the
air that you expose the ingredients to during shaking can
ruin some of the best scent notes of gin, the
(31:22):
volatile alcohols that make juniper and coriander taste and smell crisp. Yeah, yeah,
those are top notes, so they'll start to dissipate during shaking,
which can leave your drink tasting and smelling a little
bit dull. Therefore, the best way to mix a gin
martini is definitely by stirring.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Vodka martinis are probably okay either way. They don't have
those botanicals, so you're not dealing with a loss of
top notes the way that you would with gin. Though,
if you are using a really good remooth, you might
want to stir your vodka martini too. Okay. Yeah, good
to know. Serving your martini's in glassware street from the
(32:02):
freezer will help offset the coldness lost by stirring instead
of shaking. Yeah, so that's recommended either way.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Originally, Lauren, she had quite the plan for our martini
testing during this episode.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
She wanted to get some martini.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Glasses, put them in the freezer, then go obtain our
martini cocktails. Yes, bring them back, put them in the
chilled glasses.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I was very impressed, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
We happened to work in a building that has a
lovely food court downstairs, including a few restaurants that will
allow you to take away your cocktails, yes, in a
plastic cup, as long as you're not leaving the building,
which is what we've done.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
We have.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Thank you the Marcury, Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Thank you. They actually have helped us out on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
They certainly have.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, they're lovely. So that's our Martini episode.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And I hope you enjoyed learning about it as much
as I did, because I, like I said, I didn't
know much about it, and I was very surprised.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I knew a little bit about it, Like
I knew enough, Like I have opinions, one of those
pedantic Lauren things, and and I don't have a Killjoy
corner level of alliteration phrase to attach to this, but
I'm working towards it, Yeah, because I have so many
pedantic opinions. And yes, I a vodka martini is not
a Martini. A martini is jin and vermouth.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
We will come up with a title for this, Lauren,
I believe.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
But that's okay. Yeah, if you like vodka martini's go
for it. Oh sure, it's not a Martini.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we
enjoyed replaying it.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yes, yes, And I will say, as a very short
Martini update that that we humans continue to innovate in
the Martini field. I was doing my due diligence like
Google search before this classic and apparently very popular right
now are things including a parmesan espresso martini I have
(34:15):
I've not seen whatever viral media post has led to this,
but apparently espresso martinis are popular, and specifically one that
puts parmesan in it. Also Stanley Tucci making martinis, which
I fully endorse, yeah, one thousand percent all the time.
Also the freezer martini, which is when like you mix
(34:36):
a martini with no ice and then to chill it,
you store it in a bottle in the freezer and
then just pour it into a glass when you're ready
to drink. Okay, And furthermore, the spicy martini, which vinepaar
dot com reports and I quote, is your daddy now?
(34:59):
Oh no? So yeah, I don't know, but.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
That made me laugh before when I read this, it
made me laugh.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Now yeah, that's why I included it in this. In
this note, I was like, well, I'm not entirely sure
what that means. I don't think I'm going to click
the link to find out, but here we are.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
It's Pedro Pascal and cocktail.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
You know, Pedro Pascal was the first thing that I
thought of as well, so I'm glad that we're both
see this is apparently the kind of viral media that
we're consuming. It's just nothing but paid Pascal all the time,
like not on the espresso Martini end.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Right, right, which is an interesting thing for a food podcast.
I think that's what says says a part o.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's that niche that we filled.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yes, it's our here's your horror movie update about the
Martini and also Pedro Pascal horror.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
So you know, that's just where we are.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Just makes sense, just makes sense in our own special
brand of sense. But yes, well, also just a quick note,
one of the reasons we're having classic right now is
we're going on a trip.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Uh so perhaps we'll get martini of some.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Kind, Yeah, I would. Yeah, we're full disclosure, we're going
on a trip to Vegas. So so we're gonna have
some episodes coming out about that sometime in the future
and hopefully we're going to be interviewing some rad people
(36:47):
and and hopefully it's going to be a fun, fun
time for everyone.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, I think so, I would ask.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I mean, you know what I think we're going I
mean potentially multiple times. Yeah, this work things, So if
you have any recommend I think by the time this
episode comes out, we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It's a short trip.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, but but.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yes, yes, send those recommendations our way. But all right, uh.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
In the meantime, if you would like to send us
those recommendations.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
You can.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We would love to hear from you, all right emails
Hello at saberpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod and yes, we do hope
to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Ree and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have a classic episode for you about the Martini cocktail
and glass.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We did talk a lot about glass wear, Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We did. Yeah, this one is from March of twenty eighteen. WHOA, yeah,
I know, right, I have to really parse that my
brain for a second. Okay, yeah, no, I don't know
what that means anymore. It's okay, Oh okay. Well, was
there any reason it was on your mind?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
No?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Absolutely not, or I suppose it perhaps should have been,
because I very recently did an episode about Martini glasses
on one of my other shows, Brain Stuff, And for
that I definitely dipped into our notes here and added
a little bit, a little bit of stuff. Yes, but
(01:03):
I had forgotten entirely that that even happened, because, as
we have said before on the show, I jettison all
information from my brain the second I'm done recording, or
like the second i'm done like writing the title and
description out, and then I don't know what I recorded
about yesterday. I barely know what I'm recording about now.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's all a mystery and Martini's don't help. Nope, Nope,
they don't give Drake responsibly.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, always, always, always, yes, I am.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I don't know if I've told you this, Lauren, but
I've had to take a break from horror movies.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh my goodness, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Because I have watched so many it was getting out
of hand. And if everyone listening, you might be like.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Really, yes, No, I believe Annie when she says that,
because I have some inkling of how many horror movies
she's been watching. But I feel like that's probably a
conservative estimate, and that conservative estimate is a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So yes.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
But part of it is I have these like really
vivid dreams. Sure, great, okay, you know the horror part
comes in and then you're like scared to sleep, and
I already have trouble sleeping, so it's kind of an issue.
I did have one about a kind of Martini cocktail
(02:35):
situation now my ball in it, which I know is
that thing that I've seen before. It was in an
original anti brain thing that was happening, but the image
stuck with me for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It was quite and I was like, where did this
come from?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I think it might have been because of our our
D and D hangout. I know I've talked about it before,
but I often like drinks with like gin sure and fruit,
and so that usually means I get a coop glass,
a coop glass, and I have a lot of trouble
as a clumsy person holding a coop glass. So I
(03:15):
think my like stress around that glass translated into D
and D and this martini nightmare.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Like I don't know, Okay, I could have been anything, really,
but have dreams are dreams are wacky, but but all right, Well,
I'm glad to hear that you are taking a perhaps
responsible step back from horror films.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I haven't had a regular old martini and a good
hot minute. I think, like at the very beginning, like
or like in the kind of early beginning of the pandemic,
kind of like the first time that I got even
like a to go cocktail from a restaurant, I felt
(04:04):
like I was finally back in civilization, right, Like I
was like, Oh, this is what it's like to be
a human person, right. I mean I also felt the
same way eating like a large pile of wings, but yes,
which I ordered the two together, so it was pretty right.
(04:24):
That was a good afternoon twenty twenty didn't have to
be honest, a lot of great afternoons, but that was
one of them.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yes, I mean those things had become quite special. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, I hear you. Well, I guess we should
let pass Annie and Lauren take it away.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Sure, Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Reese
and I'm Lauren Voclbaum. And this is another cocktail hour.
Today we're talking about the Martini.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And this is a very special cocktail hour.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh yeah, it's the first one where we're actually having
a cocktail while we're recording it. So yeah, cheers, y'all.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Cheers and cheers Dylan, Uh huh, cheers. This is my
first time having Martini.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
How are you enjoying it?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I actually really like it. It's it's not what I expected.
I got it extra dirty, which we'll talk about more,
but basically it means all of all.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Of Brian Yeah, juice, Brian.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, and I really like it.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I technically got a vesper. I can also mention that
in a moment. But yeah, let's let's start this episode
off because the Martini is a huge cultural icon in America,
So let's start off with some some some quotes yes.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And this is one of my favorite things about the Martini,
because I did. I didn't know much about it, to
be honest, and it inspired so many quotes. There's so
many great quotes in this episode, so here are few.
Historian Bernard de Voto described the Martini as.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The supreme American gift to world culture.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Satirist HL men Can called it the only American invention
as perfect as the sonnet.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That is some high high phrase, right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
A nineteen forties newspaper columnist wrote, more people get their
glasses broken and arrested and divorced on account of Martini's
than for any other reason. Dang could be true. And
here's a poem, a Martini.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Poem by Ogden Nashialists.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yes, eh, there is something about a Martini, A tingle
remarkably pleasant, a yellow, a mellow Martini.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I wish that I had one at present.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
There is something about a Martini air the dying and
dancing begin. And to tell you, the truth is not
the verymooth. I think perhaps it's the gin. Yeah, thank you, Lauren,
thank you. But here this brings us to something we
should note.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Oh, drink responsibly, y'all, especially when your drinks have almost
four ounces of liquor in them.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yes, yes, please be responsible.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Don't be breaking any glasses or getting divorces on account
of martini's.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
No, please please do not, because it's it's partially the
very mouth, but it is also definitely partially the gin. Yes,
Ogdenash was correct. So the Martini? What is it?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
According to a bar like in Savannah, Georgia called Gin
and Friends, it is just about anything you can imagine
with a.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Garnish of twigs. I actually really like that bar.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
But uh oh, I think you probably can get a
traditional Martinia. There's over one thousand different martinis. I believe
maybe it's hundreds. I'm probably exaggerating.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Uh pedantic, Lauren is like, that's not a.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Mort Yes, she reacted very viscerally.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Classically, the martini is a very specific thing. It's just
gin and dry white vermouth and a roughly six to
one ratio three ounces of gin and about half an
ounce of vermouth. You shake or stir this with ice
and then strain it into a glass, either with a
twist of lemon or an olive for garnish. At this
most simple iteration, it is a showcase for the gin
(08:23):
and the vermouth, and the drink will taste simultaneously sort
of clean and rich, with notes including herbal, piny, floral,
and savory. Yep, would you say that's what you're experiencing
right now?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I am, and Lauren got to see me. I order
the martini moments ago, and there was a look of
panic on my face when the bartender said the twist
dirty olive, and luckily I made the correct, non stupid decision.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I did not ask for the twist.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I asked for olive dirty, oh right, which and I
means together yes, and I mean stupid, as in, I'm
sure the lemon one or the twist one is also lovely.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But I did not ask for all three, right, yes, No, okay,
embarrassment avoided.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Lowell Edmonds wrote about this classic Martini. It's pleasure, which
is not voluptuous but astringent, can only be expressed by oxymoron,
sensuous coldness, opulent dryness, mysterious clarity, alluring purity.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I love it because again, it's one of those things.
If you just read that last bit, I would have
no idea what you were talking about, but I would
want it part of it right right? This cocktail was
the favorite of many famous people, from Winston Churchill to.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
FDR, Himingway all over him.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I feel like every cocktail was his favorite, depending on
when you ask whatever cocktail was in his hand. Himmingway
used a martini as an insult in Across the River
and into the trees when one character orders Montgomery's fifteen
to one, in other words, fifteen parts gin to one
part vermu. Yeah, the order was meant as a dig
(10:05):
at Commander Montgomery, who allegedly would not go into a
battle without a fifteen to one soldier advantage. The small
amount of vermouth was meant to symbolize his small amount
of courage. I should keep that in mind if I
ever want to insult somebody, you can insult someone with
a cocktail.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yes, I already have like a vague plan for revenge bakery.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We'll revisit that in another episode.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
According to some sources, FDR would host a daily Martini
Hour in which he made martinis that were too heavy
on the vermouth, like.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Two to one gin to vermouth, which is a way
that some people drink them, but it's certainly heavier than
the norm. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, FDR apparently drank them this way, and the White
House Council was not a fan of this preparation method,
and one would hope surreptitiously pour it into the potted plant.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Then again, when fdr served it up to Stalin in
nineteen four forty three, Stalin was a first time Martini drinker.
Khrushchev declared the drink as America's lethal weapon.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Ah wow, Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
One of Julia Child's favorite drinks was the reverse Martini.
That's five to one vermouth to gin, the reverse Martini,
m m. And people love getting up in arms about
that vermouth to liquor ratio. Supposedly, Churchill said about it,
I would like to observe the vermouth from across the
room while I drink my martini, Or that one should
(11:32):
glance at the vermouth bottle briefly while pouring the juniper
distolate freely.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well he was British.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Or possibly that you should drink ice called gin while
bowing in the general direction of France, or that you
should hold the vermouth bottle over the shaker and just
let light shine through it.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, Churchill. That first quote.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Looking across the room at the vermouth has also been
attributed to Alfred hitchcock. Some folks just do a vermouth
rinseat of adding it to the shaker like utasa quarter
ounce or so of remoth into the cocktail glass, twirl
and then poured out before straining in your ice, shaken
or stirred gin and supposedly Lyndon B. Johnson preferred this version.
M h but hey, y'all, what the heck is vermouth?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I had no idea, enjoyed did this?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's Vermouth is a wine that has been infused with
various botanicals, specifically wormwood, also probably including saffron, coriander, chemomial
and or juniper, and then fortified with a little bit
of a neutral spirit like udaged brandy. And the dry
white version was created in France around eighteen hundred. This
is definitely whole episode kind of territory. That's a very
(12:42):
brief yeah definition. Yeah yeah. And while we're defining things,
gin is a neutral spirit that is also infused with
botanicals including juniper and a whole mess of other herbs
and spices. We talked about it in our Gin and
Tonic episode and also visited a local distillery and like
made a video and a batch of gin. Yeah about it?
(13:06):
So go check those out if you would like to
learn more about gin. Some folks do use vodka instead
of gin to make martinises. You can also add in
a bit of olive brine for that dirty martini, or
a drop or two of bitters, specifically orange bitters. My
bartender slash chef friend Darryl makes a version with a
few drops of olive oil floated on top instead of
(13:27):
an olive garnish. And if you add a cocktail onion
instead of an olive, it's a Gibson.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
If you use both vodka and gin, add the vermouth
and then have a lemon twist, that's a vesper, Yeah,
which is what I'm drinking right now.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Mm hmm. Oh. And that teeny suffix.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Oh yeah, those billions of martinis that you can order
at places.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, you may have noticed this before. You can get
a lot of drinks that end in teenie. Appletini is
the first one that comes to my mind because of
the cubs quote Arcini, please easy on the teenie. And
this has nothing really to do with the martini the drink,
and all to do with the V shaped martini glass.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Oh yeah, which I'm going to get into it in
a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yes, and I also read sex in the City helped
inspire a lot of teeny drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah yeah, I mean they were drinking cosmos out of
the Martini glass. It became a whole thing.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Okay, Okay, So that's the basics. But let's talk about
some history.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, this is one of those great ones. But first
let's take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And we're back, Thank you sponsor. Yes, okay, Martini history. Yeah,
since eighteen eighty two, the combination of gin and Vermouth
has gone by the Martini, the Martina, the martine, the Martini,
the Martineau, and the Martinez.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And these early versions were sweeter, more like Manhattan's that
were just made with gin instead of whiskey, so therefore
including bitters and sugar syrup and currosow. Though by the
turn of the twentieth century, the latter two ingredients, the
sugar syrup and currosow, had fallen by the wayside, and
if anything was to be added to that requisite gin
in Vermouth, it would be bitters and orange bitters to
(15:25):
kind of make up for that currosow's absence.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Rights and as these names might indicate multiple origin stories, exist.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Oh, it wouldn't be a cocktail hour without.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It, wouldn't it very much?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Reminds me of the margarita I love how it's just
we need a name and that's who invented it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
End of episode.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, it's possible that more than one person invented the
same drink around the same time. A story published in
The New York Times in nineteen oh four claims a
drink was the brainchild of a local judiciary named Randolph Martin,
but those who knew him well didn't seem to agree.
Champagne was his alcohol of choice, and apparently he rarely
(16:04):
strayed from it, so his friends were like nope. In
eighteen eighty four, New York Cocktail Guide included a recipe
for a Martinez, and because of this, in the nineteen forties,
people started theorizing that maybe the drink came from Martinez, California. Ah,
this one gets really muddy, but as the story goes,
(16:25):
a gold miner, looking to celebrate his findings, ordered the
drink special. But whatever was the drink special the bartender
did not have, so he whipped up something based on
what he did have, which happened to be Jen Vermouth
and a few extra things the bartender. The bartender called
it a Martinez after the town. This is the official
(16:46):
story on the Martinez website, although I read many alternate versions,
including one where the miner he was actually celebrating. He
wasn't celebrating at all. He was out of money, a
fine gold, was miserable.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So it's like to fix me whatever you've got.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yes, yes, so take it with a grain of salt.
There's a Martini pun in there, but I can't make
it right now.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's okay, It's okay.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
San Francisco also lays claim to the Martini, as does
New York City. In eighteen sixty three, an Italian Vermouth
company was marketing one of its products as a Martini.
I recognize it. Martini and Rossi Vermouth.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh yeah, still a very large player in the field.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Another story goes that after France left Syria in nineteen
forty six, a Syrian man with the last name Martini
relocated to Paris and opened a bar. At the time, Martini's,
if not name, the drink did already exist, but Martini
the person's contribution was the addition of an olive as
(17:52):
sort of an homage to his home country where all
of our big product. Oh yeah, th realist even compiled
it neat almost conspiracy level.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They're all connected, timeline.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Ah it hegans with a bartender named Martini Diarma Ditagia
making Martini at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York for
one John g Rockefeller Okay m hm, who then in
turn made it for his.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Buddies on Wall Street.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
But then Rockefeller's son, John Junior, helped make Prohibition happen.
But then Prohibition was a failure, and he was instrumental
in reversing it, And then he supervised the opening of
a place that ended up serving a lot of Martini's,
the Rainbow Room, and eventually the Rainbow Room was the
scene of the Martini's revival in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Wow. Yeah, that's intense, It is right, It's true, that's
very intense. But who knows, not us at any rate
up through Prohibition. You know, for the first four decades
or so of the Martini's history, the drink was not
served in the Martini glass because it hadn't been invented yet.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
There you go, Probably the rounder slightly more forgiving champagne
coop would have been used, as it was for many
drinks served up at the time, up as opposed to
on the rocks. In the twenties, though at the height
of Art Deco, someone somewhere made that coop angular, you know,
a cone rather than a semisphere. It may have made
(19:27):
its official debut at the nineteen twenty five Paris Exhibition.
By the nineteen thirties, this glass design was firmly associated
with the Martini cocktail, a clean design for a clean drink.
And meanwhile, prohibition had made gin America's darling liquor, as
it was much easier to doupe than whiskey, which gets
its flavor from aging. Kind of pour juniper oil into
(19:49):
some booze base and you're like, oh, it's sort of
like gin.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's that Gin.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
An article from American Heritage Magazine suggests that the Martini's
simplicity and its glasses design made it a symbol of
the modern American urbanite, a and I quote defiant retort
to Bible Belt intolerance and Victorian repression. That is quite
a lot to put on a glass that's heavy, right, yeah,
(20:17):
for a glass and a cocktail. By the nineteen forties
and fifties, with the rise of mid century modern design,
the lip of that Martini glass would grow wider and
the stem longer, and through industrialization, this glassware became available
for home use for the growing middle class. So the
Martini and its glass, and partially through the enthusiasm of
(20:38):
folks like FDR, became symbols of power and modernity. A
New York Times article in nineteen fifty eight called it
the symbol of our civilization.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
And if you're familiar with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, saxophonist
Paul Desmond would later say that in developing their sound quote,
I think I had it in the back of my
mind that I wanted to sound like a dry Martini.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Wow. Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I have to say that I didn't know much about martinis,
but I did always have that association with the glass
as it being kind of this rich city.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah yeah, wealthy, yeah, urbane.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Yeah, and which is fascinating because I didn't know much
about it, but that still cultural.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, huh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Vodka started really gaining popularity in the fifties. At the
beginning of the decade, about five hundred thousand cases were sold,
but by nineteen fifty five, that number skyrocketed to five
million cases. It passed jin in terms of sales numbers
in the US in nineteen sixty seven and Whiskey in
nineteen seventy six. The first vodka martinis went by the
(21:49):
name Kangaroo Cocktail.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But by nineteen fifty one, with the publication of this
really posh like Cocktails and Nude Photos cocktail guide called
Bottoms Up and Andy just did the biggest die roll,
the Kangaroo Cocktail was sort of officially unofficially rebranded the
vodka Martini.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Rights and James Bond was instrumental in the popularity of
the vodka Martini. The first time it appeared in the
James Bond universe was in the nineteen fifty six Diamonds
Are Forever the film not the book. Okay, Yes, his
first instruction of shake and not stood. I used to
have a really good Shohn Conner impression, but I doubt
(22:33):
it anymore. Oh No, actually I probably never did, but
I thought I did anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Whatever the case.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Came two years later in the nineteen fifty eight Doctor No.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And by the nineteen seventies, vodka Martini's had begun to
outsell jin. Martini's kind of parallel with vodka to gin
sales in general. M hm.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And this brings us to Martini politics.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Martini politics, I know, the Three Martini Lunch and class warfare.
Oh yeah, this is actually huge and kind of very serious.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
During the nineteen fifties and sixties, the Madmen era executives
and businessmen took part in this thing called the Three
Martini Lunch, which is what it sounds like. The working
class did not like this, and the three Martini Lunch
was it was a tax right off and the deductions
it was seen as deductions for the rich.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
President John F.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Kennedy took the first real political swife at the Three
Martini Lunch in the sixties, but the real fighting got
started in nineteen seventy two with George McGovern. He said,
there is something fundamentally wrong with the tax system when
it allows a corporate executive to deduct his twenty dollars
Martini lunch while a working man cannot deduct the price
(23:52):
of his bologney sandwich. Jimmy Carter took up the mantle
in nineteen seventy six, decrying the fact that the American
working class was having to pay for the three martini lunch,
to which his opponent for the nineteen seventy six presidential
election replied much later, the three martini lunch is the
epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful,
(24:16):
a belly full, and a snoopful.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
At the same time, m h.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Popular culture was swaying towards Carter's interpretation, though, an article
in Esquire in nineteen seventy three called the martini a bitter,
medicinal tasting beverage that represented everything from phony bourgeois values
and social snobbery to jaded alcoholism and latent masochism.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Wow. And it was actually President Reagan that mostly did
away with the three martini lunch in nineteen eighty six,
and then President Clinton with the final nail in that coffin,
and the detractors mockingly called it the two martini lunch.
Is like, you can't handle your alcohol, You're getting spoppy.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You couldn't take.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The three martinis? Yeah, oh weird, weird, I'm like sick burn.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Question marks behind it. Meanwhile, by then the nineteen eighties
bizarre be sour mixed cocktail culture was in full swing,
and everything about drinking was bigger and sweeter and more
mass produced. And amidst all this, the Martini glass had
not lost its feel of sleek sophistication. So the glass
(25:31):
just got bigger and everything got served in it, especially
these sweet fruity drinks that were meant to appeal to
women with their shoulder pads as big as their ambitions.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
See, ladies, you really can have it all.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
This association would stick through the next couple decades. Think
of that cosmo from Sex in the City with many
bars Martini menus, not including a whiff of the actual
Martini cocktail until the craft cocktail moved of the twenty
teens brought it back.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah, and this I didn't know about any of this,
but I did see there's a restaurant. It might be
in Savannah, but it has a three martini lunch on it,
and I thought it was just a weird like so yeah, yeah,
like a gimmick. Yeah, from that restaurant. And when I
was reading this, we're like, oh, realization was just dawning
(26:23):
on my face.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh yeah, Yeah. There's an episode of Bad Men where
the multiple martini lunch plays a very big factor. And
ends poorly for everyone involved, as.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I imagine it would. As I imagine it would. That
brings us to now and to some science.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yes, but first a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh yes, thank you. So this is our kind of
science and act section because I have a few important notes.
Not all of them are purely scientific, but okay, first,
one important note about vermouth. Okay, although being fortified, an
open bottle of remouth will last longer than an open
(27:16):
bottle of regular wine. Due to that fortification, it will
still go off after a couple of months. Yeah, so
you know, don't just keep a half used bottle of
remooth sitting on your bar. At the very least, keep
your opened bottle in the fridge for extra staying power,
and use it within like three to four months. It's
really great for cooking as well as in cocktails, or
(27:38):
even by itself on the rocks if you get a
good enough one. So I promise it's not at all
difficult to go through. Use it up. It'll be delicious.
Deglaze all of your pants with it. You'll thank me later.
I do have a slight kill joy corner for you today.
The witty and slightly blue quatrain about Marche that is
(28:00):
often attributed to Dorothy Parker was almost certainly not said
or written by Dorothy Parker. A The quatraine goes, I
like to have a Martini two at the very most,
after three, I'm under the table. After four, I'm under
my host, which I think really has to be said
that in that Trisatlantic accent. I believe Dorothy Parker had
(28:23):
grown so famous for quips that misattribution is pretty common,
and this appears. This quatrain appears who have originated in
the University of Virginia's undergrad humor magazine, The Harlequin, not
from Parker, although that's no reason to love her, or
Martini's or responsible drinking any less. For the record, Dorothy
(28:44):
Parker preferred Scotch.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Scotch is lovely.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It is good to know. Also, one last bit of
e femera. I read this article in Imbibe magazine. It
was written by one Wayne Curtis. He was writing about
the Martini glass, and it contains such a sick burn
that I wanted to share it. The Martini glass is
one of those objects appealing in concept, but disappointing in reality,
(29:11):
member of a category that includes cotton candy and the
films of Adam Sandler.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Oh ah, that's pretty harsh.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I laughed out loud in my house and like startled
my cats, So yeah, I wanted to share it. I
happen also to agree on all counts.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Then again, I'm the guy who drinks everything out of
jam jars because I cannot be trusted with stemware.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I'm the same, although I have broken several stemless glasses
as well, so clearly I'm just plastics.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, here you go.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
How classy everything a fello cat? That's me.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
This brings us to a question that I've wondered about it. Yeah, uh,
shaken are stirred?
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Oh okay, this is today's science portion, and there is
science to shaken versus stirred, Because okay, the purpose of
shaking a cocktail with ice is a to chill the
drink and b to mix in lighter ingredients like your gin,
your vodka. You're whiskey with things that are less easily mixed,
(30:18):
like heavy sweet liqueurs or simple syrup or stuff like eggs.
If all your ingredients are lighter, as with a martini,
which is just fortified wine and gin, shaking is unnecessary
at best. Furthermore, shaking a cocktail with ice in a
shaker will chip little bits of ice into the drink,
(30:38):
which melt down quickly, which water the drink down and
also adds in tiny little air bubbles. And this might
well be what you're going for with some cocktails, but
bartenders will tell you that with a martini it can
ruin the silky mouthfeel that you're looking for from the liquor.
Stirring with ice, on the other hand, chills the drink
(30:58):
a little bit less than you get with shaking, but
it does so without agitating the ingredients so much and
does not chip the ice, so less water gets into
your cocktail. According to MIT research scientist Shannon Stewart, the
air that you expose the ingredients to during shaking can
ruin some of the best scent notes of gin, the
(31:22):
volatile alcohols that make juniper and coriander taste and smell crisp. Yeah, yeah,
those are top notes, so they'll start to dissipate during shaking,
which can leave your drink tasting and smelling a little
bit dull. Therefore, the best way to mix a gin
martini is definitely by stirring.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Vodka martinis are probably okay either way. They don't have
those botanicals, so you're not dealing with a loss of
top notes the way that you would with gin. Though,
if you are using a really good remooth, you might
want to stir your vodka martini too. Okay. Yeah, good
to know. Serving your martini's in glassware street from the
(32:02):
freezer will help offset the coldness lost by stirring instead
of shaking. Yeah, so that's recommended either way.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Originally, Lauren, she had quite the plan for our martini
testing during this episode.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
She wanted to get some martini.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Glasses, put them in the freezer, then go obtain our
martini cocktails. Yes, bring them back, put them in the
chilled glasses.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I was very impressed, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
We happened to work in a building that has a
lovely food court downstairs, including a few restaurants that will
allow you to take away your cocktails, yes, in a
plastic cup, as long as you're not leaving the building,
which is what we've done.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
We have.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Thank you the Marcury, Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Thank you. They actually have helped us out on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
They certainly have.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, they're lovely. So that's our Martini episode.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And I hope you enjoyed learning about it as much
as I did, because I, like I said, I didn't
know much about it, and I was very surprised.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I knew a little bit about it, Like
I knew enough, Like I have opinions, one of those
pedantic Lauren things, and and I don't have a Killjoy
corner level of alliteration phrase to attach to this, but
I'm working towards it, Yeah, because I have so many
pedantic opinions. And yes, I a vodka martini is not
a Martini. A martini is jin and vermouth.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
We will come up with a title for this, Lauren,
I believe.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
But that's okay. Yeah, if you like vodka martini's go
for it. Oh sure, it's not a Martini.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we
enjoyed replaying it.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yes, yes, And I will say, as a very short
Martini update that that we humans continue to innovate in
the Martini field. I was doing my due diligence like
Google search before this classic and apparently very popular right
now are things including a parmesan espresso martini I have
(34:15):
I've not seen whatever viral media post has led to this,
but apparently espresso martinis are popular, and specifically one that
puts parmesan in it. Also Stanley Tucci making martinis, which
I fully endorse, yeah, one thousand percent all the time.
Also the freezer martini, which is when like you mix
(34:36):
a martini with no ice and then to chill it,
you store it in a bottle in the freezer and
then just pour it into a glass when you're ready
to drink. Okay, And furthermore, the spicy martini, which vinepaar
dot com reports and I quote, is your daddy now?
(34:59):
Oh no? So yeah, I don't know, but.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
That made me laugh before when I read this, it
made me laugh.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Now yeah, that's why I included it in this. In
this note, I was like, well, I'm not entirely sure
what that means. I don't think I'm going to click
the link to find out, but here we are.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
It's Pedro Pascal and cocktail.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
You know, Pedro Pascal was the first thing that I
thought of as well, so I'm glad that we're both
see this is apparently the kind of viral media that
we're consuming. It's just nothing but paid Pascal all the time,
like not on the espresso Martini end.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Right, right, which is an interesting thing for a food podcast.
I think that's what says says a part o.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's that niche that we filled.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yes, it's our here's your horror movie update about the
Martini and also Pedro Pascal horror.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
So you know, that's just where we are.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Just makes sense, just makes sense in our own special
brand of sense. But yes, well, also just a quick note,
one of the reasons we're having classic right now is
we're going on a trip.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Uh so perhaps we'll get martini of some.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Kind, Yeah, I would. Yeah, we're full disclosure, we're going
on a trip to Vegas. So so we're gonna have
some episodes coming out about that sometime in the future
and hopefully we're going to be interviewing some rad people
(36:47):
and and hopefully it's going to be a fun, fun
time for everyone.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, I think so, I would ask.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I mean, you know what I think we're going I
mean potentially multiple times. Yeah, this work things, So if
you have any recommend I think by the time this
episode comes out, we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It's a short trip.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, but but.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yes, yes, send those recommendations our way. But all right, uh.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
In the meantime, if you would like to send us
those recommendations.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
You can.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We would love to hear from you, all right emails
Hello at saberpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod and yes, we do hope
to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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