Why the Martini Remains the Most Iconic Cocktail Ever Poured

Before you were legally able to drink — before you even knew what a drink was, really — you knew the martini. For a century, it’s been the quintessential cocktail: strong but refreshing, simple but flexible, sophisticated yet somehow rebellious, almost transgressive. Culturally, it looms as large as apple pie, only cool and sexy instead of warm and maternal. Institutions are rarely so fun.

To celebrate both sides of that legacy — the pedigree and the playfulness — the French premium vodka brand Grey Goose is dedicating its 2016 Pour Master’s program to the vodka martini. Mixologists across Canada are invited to share their personal twists on the iconic classic. Four finalists will be flown to Cognac, France, where Grey Goose creator Francois Thibault will sip their winning martinis and crown the 2016 Pour Masters champion.

Why the martini, and why now? While the drink has never exactly gone out of style over the past century, it’s been experiencing something of a renaissance over the past few years — spurred partly by an era of mid-century nostalgia represented by shows like Mad Men, but also by the nature of the drink itself, says Grey Goose Global Ambassador Joe McCanta.

“It is a drink that really shows off its base spirit better than any other, and right now people have probably the highest knowledge and appreciation for spirits that I’ve seen in my 15 years bartending,” McCanta says. “It’s also such a sophisticated drink with such an incredible history and lore about it that you feel a part of the greater story of the martini every time you sip one.”

In contrast to the martini’s poured clarity, its history, especially its origins, is somewhat murky. Similar recipes have existed since the 19th century. One popular creation theory centres on the California Gold Rush town of Martinez, where prospectors were served a cocktail that combined gin with sweet, not dry, vermouth. (The Martinez is still served today, though recipes vary far more widely than they do with the martini.)

Regardless of where it was born, the gin martini remained common until the 1950s, when vodka’s burgeoning post-war popularity, not to mention its cleaner flavour, led to the wide-scale adoption of the vodka martini as the drink of choice. By the time James Bond became an international icon in the 1960s, the name of his drink of choice, the “vodka martini,” was almost redundant. (Though — sorry, James — a prime martini should always be stirred to perfection, not shaken. Shaking will get you a cold martini quickly, but the tiny air bubbles that result will compromise its texture, McCanta says. Plus, shaking speeds up the ice’s dilution, which means a shaken martini will warm more quickly than a smoothly stirred one.)

Despite being at least 100 years old, the martini over time has gotten stronger — literally. While 19th century recipes tended to call for roughly equal amounts of spirit and vermouth, the standard today is roughly two-and-a-half parts vodka to a half part dry vermouth, a stiff cocktail for even the most seasoned drinker. But Grey Goose’s McCanta says there’s an enormous opportunity for customization within that heavy ratio. The martini “remains one of the few cocktails that you can entirely tailor to your taste,” McCanta says. “Wet or dry, twist or olives, dirty or naked — you find what you like and make it your own!”

“It is such a simple cocktail, but its simplicity makes it endlessly complex,” McCanta says. “There’s such a minute difference between a truly great martini and an average one.”

That’s the key. Today, subtle nuances of character and flavor can seem to have been almost entirely replaced by mass-produced consistency. Even craft beer — alcohol’s other great artisanal frontier — while delicious, is hardly based on variation across pours. The martini, timeless and proud, cuts through our culture of sameness like only an icon can. It’s a throwback to an era when the skill and creativity of a bartender were of vital importance, when a drink could be an experience, not just a product.

A throwback, but not a relic: The martini may be a classic, but it’s in no way stuck in the past. Its coolness is a constant, but the drink itself invites interpretation, from bartenders, professional and amateur, the world over. Just make sure you come correct.

“There’s nothing more sophisticated or more sexy,” says McCanta, “than when a person knows exactly how they take their martini cocktail. It’s the mark of a real tastemaker.”