Cocktail recipe
Dirty Martini
Cold gin, vermouth and olive brine: saline elegance with an edge.
Ingredients
- 60 ml (2 oz) London dry gin
- 15 ml (½ oz) dry vermouth
- 10 ml (⅓ oz) quality olive brine
- Garnish: 2 green olives
Preparation
Chill the glass thoroughly. Stir gin, vermouth and chilled olive brine over solid ice until icy and integrated, then strain cleanly. Skewer two firm olives; do not muddle them or pour jar sediment into the drink.
Glassware
Chilled Martini glass
History
The Dirty Martini is a savoury branch of the evolving Martini family, not a drink with a securely documented inventor. A 1901 New York bartender’s manual attributed to John E. O’Connor includes a Martini variation with muddled olives, sometimes cited as an early precursor, but that is not identical to today’s measured olive-brine Martini. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fondness for olive-heavy Martinis belongs to the drink’s cultural history, not proof of its invention. Modern “dirty” conventions took shape across 20th-century bars.
Mixology View
Our house version is deliberately dirty, not murky. A measured 10 ml of brine gives a reproducible saline note without erasing the gin.