The NYTImes ran a fun article yesterday about a tasting event designed to suss out the best gin for a martini. Reminding us right out of the gate that martinis require gin and not vodka, stressing the inclusion of vermouth, and featuring stirred martinis instead of shaken, the panel of four tasted some 80 martinis between them, and came to some interesting conclusions:
In our martinis, we looked for balance, persistence and character. A martini without balance cannot be elegant, and a martini ought to be a model of elegance. By persistence I mean flavors that linger long enough to savor, intrigue and refresh, a combination that demands another sip. Too little persistence, and there’s no intrigue. Too much, and it won’t refresh.
Our favorite martini gin, Plymouth English Gin, could not have been more stylish and graceful. Plymouth has the classic juniper-based gin profile, yet it is uncommonly subtle and smooth. Still, it is assertive, its complexity emerging slowly but distinctly, the proverbial fist in a velvet glove.
A great set of tasting notes accompanies the article as it rounds out the group's top ten martini gins. My personal favorite, Bombay Sapphire, fared reasonably well: "Bombay Sapphire was sort of jazzy — a martini that intrigued without really hanging together." That kind of describes my whole personality actually. Other well-known stand-bys don't service the martini quite as well: "Tanqueray No. 10, with its emphasis on citrus flavors, may work well neat or with tonic, but was discordant in a martini."
Interestingly, the newish Hendricks gin, with its prominent cucumber infusion, seems to do well in the environs of a martini: "With its floral aromas, Hendrick’s from Scotland seemed to work from a different palette of botanicals, and it made for a lively, colorful martini." That surprised me, given the reviewers' early statements:
The dividing line between vodka and gin has always been the addition of juniper to gin. But among the spirits sold as gin today, some have reduced juniper to a secondary component while others seem to have dispensed with it altogether. We found that cardamom was prominent in quite a few of the 20 gins we had stirred into martinis.
“You see cardamom over and over,” Audrey said. “It’s exciting but you have to guard the category or you’ll just be drinking flavored vodkas.”
At any rate, this is as good a starting point as any if you're looking to broaden your palette a bit by exploring a few more gins than you're used to. I'll certainly be revisiting Plymouth at least. And of course, the idea of staging my own 80-martini tasting event certainly sounds appealing, although trying to write about it afterwards seems like a task best left to true professionals.
