This is amazing! It reminds me of the 1966 American Standards Association (now called ANSI) when they did an actual guideline on the American Standard Dry Martini.
I don’t think I can attach a file here but a quick google gave this link to a the full PDF: https://acbcert.com/packets/issue17/martini-standard.pdf
It should be noted that the “guideline” is a gag—and a pretty funny one—that was the last thing out of the ASA before it was reorganized as USASI; I presume the Bulletin 27 referenced in the previous clipping is the genuine article. (The Political Decisions Coordinating Council is represented by Harry Underarms.)
As a correction to my dogmatic response near the top of this thread, the following (also I see mentioned by @BookofMorten in his linked essay) is from George Kappeler’s book, 1895:
There’s your “extra dry”. I take this trio of recipes from an exceptionally astute bartender working the major New York hotel bars as clear evidence that the “dry” as in French vermouth, and “dry” as in an expression of how unsweet a drink is were conflated from the beginning.
Also, from the 1906 A Bachelor’s Cupboard:
“The only really decent drinks,” he says convincingly, “can be counted on the fingers of one hand. A good imported Scotch with teh peat-smoke perfume, Medford rum—and what a pity it’s no longer made!—a dry, very dry, Martini cocktail, a Gordon gin rickey, and the best Irish whisky—those are the best drinks that a man can take in this country, or the old country either. And, as a matter of fact, it’s next to impossible to get a cocktail that is a cocktail in London or anywhere else on the other side.”
We all have our opinions.
The whole “Dry” Martini thing began as a move away from sweet and the terminology seems to be borrowed from champagne and wines given the use of vermouth.
In the same way you can have a dry wine or a sweet wine (But NOT a wet one…), the logic of balancing a Martini then becomes the same as a Manhattan, which we more commonly can agree has the Sweet, Dry or “Perfect” variations.
Boothby spoke of the sweet element in 1891 and outlined why it didn’t need to have sugar explicitly added (which was not uncommon at the time):
Then there’s the 1895 explicit mention of Dry and Extra Dry terminology in the context of the Manhattan by Kappeler which further agrees with this.
As far as I can find, the explicit usage of “Dry” in the context of a Martini likely originated in Paris. There’s the obvious 1904 recipe in American Bar by Frank Newman but there’s also a casual mention of the drink in Lilian Bell’s novel The Expatriates from 1900. I did more digging on this when I first researched for the short article linked above, but I do believe she was in Paris at the time of writing the book which seems convenient given Newman’s release a few years later:
As for personal preferences, here’s another fun mention from the Argonaut in September 1896 a few weeks after chef John F. Chamberlin passed away where the man allegedly sent back a Martini style drink with French vermouth.
Ultimately, the take-away implication seems to be that the meaning of “dry” or “extra dry” is completely context-dependent, and has been all along. The reports from bartenders, above, reinforce that. If somebody writes “dry martini” in a book, and supplies a recipe, then you know what they have in mind. If somebody orders a “dry martini” at a bar, you’ll have to ask them.
The Dry Martini was known, under that name, in New York by the mid-1890s. Here’s the New York World in July, 1896:
I agree with Chamberlain about the genever-dry vermouth combination, by the way.
I’m amazed at how this thread has evolved into such a great discussion around martinis. A delightful read from my end and from it i’ve come - i’ve learnt a lot more through you all and I’m Grateful for all the responses.
When i started the thread, I had it in my mind that the martini was more precise, perhaps the way the public view the drink, either dry, extra or dirty and I was silly to think that the drink could be just optimised into some sort of standard form and shape.
After reading many books, by many of you on this forum and then some more - making - and drinking, just about every variation I can think of I think i’ve come to a conclusion more in line with Raulrufin, that each one is fantastic for the right person. Maybe that’s why i love the drink more than ever, it’s just sliders and scales and every martini deserves some love.
The conversation about wet and dry or how to have this drink is much of the beauty around its adaptability. That brings me to where I am now I guess, having made and tasted a few hundred or more drinks since last year, just get close to what the guest wants if you’re pulling the levers behind the bar and if it’s quiet - indulge them in some adventure and have fun with it.
The only thing i feel sad and maybe confused about is that it’s hard for modern bartending to move past the modern rules for making them… back to the old ones? - id love to see what you all think about this area of the martini in its discussion too…
People say not to add syrups, but a barspoon of lemon myrtle syrup in a 4:1 with a drop of absynth is very close to a Tuxedo number 2 for sweetness and if it’s divine then why not allow it - why were they allowed to play with sugar 100 years ago but it’s taboo today for no good reason as far as i can tell. it’s either butchering something or seemingly “uneducated” about how to make the drink.
So what do you make of a martini with a bump of sugar? what about one with a liqueur? bianco vermouth or a perfect? people seem to be fine with sugar in their vermouth being aded to the martini but not as a syrup on its own and that has always wigged me out a bit.
What I make of a Martini with a bump of sugar is one of my usual at-home aperitivi. One thing my wife and I—dry gin Martini drinkers of over 40 years’ standing, and that’s each—like when we’re having Martinis at home is a “Martini with a splash.” A barspoon of some interesting liqueur, usually. It can be anything from Centerbe or Bigallet China China to kümmel (Helbing, if we can get it), Strega, cassis, anything, really. It’s not always delicious, but sometimes it most assuredly is, and it’s different. So count me in if you’re going to try to make this a thing.
