Posted on 01/10/2009 2:17:28 PM PST by 1rudeboy
Martini drinkers are conservatives. Not necessarily politically, but in temperament: They abjure fad and fashion in drink, hewing to the Platonic form of the cocktail. They would stand athwart history yelling Stop -- if yelling weren't inconsistent with the proper comportment of a Martini drinker. They dislike change. It is with some trepidation, then, that I bring what is almost certain to be received as appalling news: Noilly Prat, the dry vermouth considered by many devotees to be the only choice for a well-made Martini, is changing its U.S. formula.
"Noilly Prat is a necessary component of a dry martini," wrote the novelist and Martini connoisseur W. Somerset Maugham in 1958. He gave the French vermouth such a formidable endorsement that the company would, for years, devote full-page magazine advertisements to quoting his claim that, without Noilly Prat, "you can make a side car, a gimlet, a white lady, or a gin and bitters, but you cannot make a dry martini."
Maugham's digression into the essentiality of Noilly Prat comes from an essay in which Maugham is exploring a Hindu-inspired notion of man's fallen nature. "Man is born to sin," he writes, and "he would not be a man if he were devoid of evil." To flesh out his point, Maugham argues that "Evil is a necessary component of him just as (if I may be permitted a flippant comparison) Noilly Prat is a necessary component of a dry martini. . . ." The comparison may be flippant, but it does have a certain resonance. Just as evil is necessary to man, vermouth has come to be seen as a necessary evil in Martinis.
The question is, just how evil is the new Noilly Prat?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Mmmm, I don't know that I've had it. I don't recall even seeing it in the stores here. I pretty much stick to Bombay.
Then there is Gordon’s which is better for G&Ts but also comes from the Tangueray company “by appointment to Her Magesty the Queen” (I’m reading it off of the label).
Burning gin is sacrilegious. ;)
Burning gin is sacrilegious. ;)
Blasphamy!!!
Hendricks has a little bit of a cucumber flavor to it. I think it makes a really good Bloody Mary (yeah, I make mine with gin instead of vodka), but I don’t know if it’d be great in a martini.
The Queen Mum was a Roman soldier?
Or a Cylon.
The sig O is a martini drinker. He uses gin and Noilly Prat in the old FDR proportions. More vermouth than they ordinarily use now.
Wonder what’s wrong with the new forumula and why NP is changing?
Why don’t you just swig gin from a paper bagged bottle then?
Never understood why omitting vermouth is considered cool... isn’t it just drinking gin?
“Noilly Prat is a necessary component of a dry martini,”
Prattle... True Martini drinkers know a good bottle of Vermouth should last a lifetime.
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Don the Beachcomber Martini
Pour out capful from bottle of Tanqueray Gin (or Stolichnaya Vodka). Replace gin with capful vermouth. Add lime or lemon peel. Screw on cap; freezer overnight.
Fill empty 1/2 gallon milk carton w/ cold water. Immerse spirits bottle in water. Freezer 2 days. Remove; cut milk carton away. Freezer ice-covered bottle 30 days.
When ready to serve, the martini will be like syrup, and is exquisite.
Interesting point. When my father died in 1997, I ran across a bottle of Noilly Prat vermouth in his liquor cabinet that had been purchased in 1946, the year of my parents' marriage.
Jameson on the rocks.
To make a truly dry martini, simply wave the bottle of vermouth over the glass.
Martinis are made with gin, period.
For the record, “vodka martinis” are dressed up lighter fluid. Yuck.
Gack! I could not go the martini in any ratio that I mixed it.
The gin ended up in Tom Collinses and I drank the vermouth chilled.
Give me Chivas neat, any day.
The Queen Mum was a Roman soldier?
Excuse the crap out of me ... I use the word infrequently ... centenarian (in my humble illiterate world) is the word I was grasping for ... my profuse apologies.
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