Balsamic Martini, Take 2

Tonight was redemption for the awful attempt of this martini last week.

Balsamic Martini:

• 3 oz of Gin (I used Tanqueray)
• 1/4 - 1/2 oz 3 Dry Vermouth (I used Gallo for very mild flavor)
• 2-3 drops fine Balsamic Vinegar (I used Bellindora Balsamic Fig)
• Twist of Lemon
• 2-3 Castelvetrano Olives

The balsamic vinegar gives a subtle, kind of savory and still sweet undertone to the gin and vermouth. It pairs well with the olives. I put some Castelvetrano olives in this time. They are not a perfect martini olive in most cases--small, a bit soft and the flavor is very mild and more sweet than other olives. But they match perfectly with this drink.

Less Than Phenomenal. . .

The last two nights I've done things different than normal. And it did not turn out well. I did things differently so that I could record recipes and take images of the martinis. It has been a disaster.

I don't measure drinks. I pour gin into the glass until "looks right." What does that mean? I don't know. I just pour until the glass has an aesthetic amount of liquid in it with room for my mixer. In some martini glasses I think it means 2 ounces, others 4 ounces. My average is somewhere in-between. Trying to use an actual shot measure is screwing me up! So, take any of my recipes and assume that the measurement given is +/- at least a half an ounce. Really!

Two nights ago was the first debacle: I attempted one of my favorite martinis. But instead of just pouring like I usually do, I took a bartender's measure and carefully poured exactly 3 ounces of gin, 1/2 ounce of vermouth and 1/2 ounce of balsamic vinegar. Dear god it was awful. This is usually a subtle drink: you take a classic martini but to give it a savory undertone with a hint of color and a nice complexity you add a hint of balsamic vinegar, 2 to 3 drops. A half ounce of the same balsamic when combined with gin produced an ugly brown liquid that tasted like cleaning solvent.

Creating great drinks, like creating any great food, requires tasting, adjusting, trial and error.

So here's pictures of great ingredients that produced a bad drink:

It is NOT supposed to look like this.

Tonight something similar happened, this time with my very favorite martini. Since I've posted several times using Gilbey's Gin I thought I'd use something else with a fancy blue bottle and a unique flavor profile. It wasn't horrible. But it wasn't my favorite either. The gin competed with the mixer instead of complementing it. I should have stuck with Gilbey's.

On a somewhat related note, a friend posted a news report on Facebook saying that Bombay Sapphire Gin was being recalled because the alcohol content was 2 times what was claimed on the label. Ha! What a great marketing ploy. My response was, "let's hurry to buy them all up before they can be pulled from the shelves!" Sapphire is a very nice gin but I do not think it is all that special. But I seriously considered running out to buy some! Well done!