Cocktails at Home: Martini Madness 5

The Martini is without a doubt the most famous of all cocktails. Consisting of gin, dry vermouth and orange bitters, no one is really sure of its exact origin. However it started, it has become one of the most popular cocktails of the twentieth century. This one drink was featured heavily in classic Hollywood cinema with stars and celebrities such as Truman Capote, Cary Grant and Winston Churchill being all big fans of it.

While the original Martini contained gin, vodka Martinis have become more and more popular over the past 50 years, in no small part thanks to James Bond and his fondness for the shaken vodka Martini. These days if you order a Martini at a bar you will more than likely end up with a glass of cold, shaken vodka, with perhaps a dribble of vermouth and certainly no bitters. Today there are no rules or boundaries. Flavored alcohol, green tea, coffee, chocolate, exotic fruits and anything else you can image are being used in today’s martinis. Feel free to experiment and try the recipes on the next page.

• 1 oz Captain Morgan® Parrot Bay mango rum
• 1/2 oz peach schnapps
• 1/2 oz Cointreau® orange liqueur
• 1 oz cranberry juice
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• Sprite®

Combine all ingredients and shake lightly with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass, splash with Sprite® and serve with an orange wedge.

• 1 oz DeKuyper® Buttershots liqueur
• 1 oz Frangelico® hazelnut liqueur
• 1 oz amaretto almond liqueur
• 1 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur
• 1 oz Bailey’s® Irish cream

Place all ingredients in martini shaker in order. Shake with ice. Pour into martini glass and serve.

• 2 oz Stoli vodka Blackberry
• 1 oz triple sec
• 2 lemon wedges
• 1 packet sugar
• 1 splash sweet and sour mix

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add 2 ounces Stoli blackberry, 1 oz Triple Sec, Juice of two lemon wedges (plus the wedges themselves), 1 packet of sugar and a splash of sour mix. Shake until shaker is frosty. Pour into a sugar rimmed, chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a Lemon twist.

• 2 oz lemon vodka
• 1/2 oz Grand Marnier® orange liqueur
• 1 oz chilled green tea

Combine ingredients in a martini shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Pour into a martini glass rimmed with lime juice and sugar. Garnish with lime slices.

• 1-1/2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz Cointreau® orange liqueur
• 3 oz pomegranate juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker 1/4 filled with chopped ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Serve with a squeeze of lemon.

• 1-1/2 oz Stolichnaya® orange vodka
• 1-1/2 oz peach schnapps
• 3/4 oz pineapple juice
• 1/4 oz Grand Marnier® orange liqueur
• 1 splash grenadine syrup

Pour vodka, peach schnapps, and pineapple juice into shaker full of ice. Shake, strain and pour into cocktail (martini) glass. Add a splash of grenadine so it will fall to the bottom and float the Grand Marnier on top.

• 2 oz. Acai Berry Juice
• 2 oz. Belvedere Vodka
• 2 oz. Hendrick’s Gin
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon lime juice

Add sugar, vodka and gin to shaker. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add ice and lime juice and shake vigorously. Pour and serve with a lime twist garnish.

• 3 oz pepper vodka
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1 tsp olive juice

Pour the pepper vodka, dry vermouth and olive brine into a cocktail shaker half-filled with cracked ice. Shake well, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an olive stuffed with a pickled jalapeno pepper and serve.