For what it’s worth, a story about the history and inexplicably long life (in the UK, at least) of the Porn Star Martini.
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It’s been recently popping (back) up on menus across continental Europe too. Good story, once more.
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It’s interested how, in this day and age, it’s managed to survive in spite of its name. It’s being commercially produced under several different names, but the consumer always seems to recognize it.
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Well, I guess not everyone lives in the same “day and age”. While it may be a problematic name for supermarkets, it doesn’t seem to be for European bar-goers.
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Thank you for this. In another part of my work life, I write about the sex industry, and Ive always found this drink’s history and where it pops up odd. The last line of your piece is terrific. And Ive noticed that 21/22 year olds where I am who like to think themselves savvy dont order porn star martinis – they order Negronis. But I have a question for you Robert, since you’ve researched this drink. Do you think the events of the last 6 months will have an affect on its second coming? Are people more likely to want more drinks like this, or fewer?
I think the events of the last six months have had, and will have, an effect on the drink in terms of rebranding it. All the new bottled version sold in stores have names other than Porn Star Martini. But I don’t think it will have an effect on the popularity of the cocktails. UK residents have shown they like the flavor combination, no matter what it’s called, and they will continue to seek it out.
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I didn’t mean the name of the drink. I meant the fascination with non-classics that had seen a comeback before this winter: appletinis and the like. Im wondering if people will want “fun” drinks when bars reopen more widely, or whether that kind of whimsy is done for a while. My own thought it that 30 year olds and 20 year olds and 15 year old dont want the same things at all. But that isn’t really an alcohol point.
Perhaps. Hard to tell. Right now people are drinking more and being less fussy about it.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t call the PSM a non-classic. I think it counts as a modern classic cocktail. And it belongs to the cocktail revival era, not the dark ages that produced the Appletini and its ilk.
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I also think it’s here to stay. Beyond the name, the original appeal resided in the ingredients, as Simon hints it in the piece, because they were, at the time, new and bold (wow, passion fruit!). Now, although fresh or purée-d exotic fruits are common, people are still drawn to it because, well, passion fruit and vanilla and vodka and champagne. It’s a magnet for people who don’t normally drink cocktails. And those who do and know their stuff also recognize it’s a very tasty drink.
In France, there’s a cocktail with a similar appeal – a regional classic, let’s say – called the Blonde Bombshell. Muddled lemon, sugar and mint + limoncello, vodka, vanilla and bitters. Crushed ice, mint. It was created in 2007 and still gets some serious play. It’s been the best-selling cocktail in quite a few bars for years. Not my style, but it’s tasty and it’s obvious why people are drawn to it.
Never heard of the Blonde Bombshell. Interesting? Any idea who invented it, and where?
I remember the first PSM I had. I was skeptical; I didn’t expect much. But it is a very tasty cocktail.
It was created in 2007 by Davy Nérambourg for an independent (non brand affiliated) competition. He took first prize. Then, in 2009, Nérambourg opened with Julien Escot a bar called Papa Doble in Montpellier, where the drink quickly became the bestseller. Papa Doble remains to this day the only non-Paris French bar to have featured on the World’s 50 Best Bars list (in 2011) – and a fine bar it was in its heyday. Nérambourg left a year or so after the opening and took his drink to Lyon and then to Switzerland. Everywhere it went, it became one, if not the, bestseller.
When Escot sold Papa Doble to open a new project with a completely different focus – a stunning bar called Aperture – he dropped the Bombshell as it didn’t fit the style of drinks he meant to serve. Within 6 months he had to bring it back and it remains one of the bestselling drinks.
It’s a bit of a similar story to Nico De Soto’s St Germain des Prés (initially Nico’s Gimlet), which De Soto created in Canada and then took to all the Experimental Cocktail Group locations he worked at. He has long left the group but the cocktail remains the bestseller at a few of the locations and it can also be found at other French bars. As a cocktail made famous in Paris and London its fate has however been more global than the Blonde Bombshell, a cocktail made famous in Montpellier.
I feature both in my 101 Cocktails book.
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Fascinating. Thanks.