Martini Chat - Martini Recipes & Cocktail Culture

Some Interesting Things...

We here at www.martiniart.com like Imbibe Magazine alot, and the July/August issue has some interesting stuff.  For example, they at Imbibe have delcared that this is the "summer of Tiki."  That works for us, because we like Tiki.  If you haven't checked out our Patio-Daddy-O section of the site, you should, because we carry patio and tiki inspired merchandise such as stir sticks with tiki heads, bamboo signs, and a cocktail lamp that would do justice to any indoor tiki lounge.  Pick up the latest copy of Imbibe and see the cool tiki recipes!  They are sure to keep the "gods" happy!!

Also, there is an article about Austin, Texas, and their local drinks scene.  What we liked is the bit about Tito's Vodka.  Tito's is one we usually have on hand in the martini mixing lab.  It is handmade and is smooth.  Look in your local liquor store today!

Lastly, on May 23rd, our blog was about the Sky Juice-a-tini made with coconut water.  Well, low and behold, in Imbibe there is a review of coconut waters, and the one we used is in there.  Are we on the leading edge, or what?!  Coconut water is quite a healthful drink, but also makes a cool cocktail.

To sum things up-subscribe to Imbibe, and check out www.martiniart.com.

Choco-tini Lite

Have you tried Metromints flavored waters?  If you haven't, you should...they have flavors like lemon and mint, orange and mint, and others. No calories, no carbs.  Now, before you start thinking that these things don't go together (like I did-bad childhood memory of brushing my teeth, then my mom making me drink orange juice ICKY), you have to open your mind or tastebuds.  So, now you're probably thinking what does this have to do with anything chocolate?  Read on.

Metromint has a chocolate mint water that we just found last weekend.  Our martini mixing minds sprung into action and we came up with the Choco-tini Lite.  The recipe and variations to follow.  Keep in mind that what your mixing is WATER, it's different than a mix, and there is NO sugar in this!

1 part Absolute vanilla vodka

3 parts Metromints Chocolate/Mint water

(all measures will depend on the size of your glass)

Shake those ingredients up in your shaker with lots of ice.  Pour into a chilled martini glass from www.martiniart.com and enjoy!  But wait, here are some other things you can do:

Add whipped cream to the top of your drink and garnish with a mint leaf-our favorite! You could even add a cherry

Rim your glass with chocolate sugar

Make the drink sweeter by using a chocolate liquor

Thinking ahead to holiday, make with Peppermint Schnapps

The basic recipe, as listed, is very light and refreshing and the only calories and carbs you're getting is from the vodka.  Truly a "lite" drink.  It's still gonna pack a punch, but there won't be a ton of sugars to aid in that hangover.  If you choose to layer in some of the other options, well, that's a different story.

Be creative! These waters are really cool.  AND, if you are looking for a way to shrink your waistline, or consume less sugar but still have the occasional cocktail, this could be an option.  Could be.

Cheers

Presidential candidate martinis...hmmmm

We scooped our own press release, and you get to see it before the world does!

Martini Expert Unveils Palin, Bachmann Martinis 

They’re frank and feisty, and now they have martinis to match. Martini guy pays tribute to GOP powerhouses with the Summer of Sarah-Tini and Bachmann Overdrive martinis.

 

Tecumseh, Mich. (PRWEB) June 20, 2011 – The presidential campaign is winding up for a wild ride, and Jerry Gonto is ready with a slender, sweaty martini glass. 

The guy who concocted the frosty Bailout Martini in 2008 is back with two new martinis crafted in his cocktail workshop at martiniart.com. 

“I think of these martinis as Sarah and Michele’s excellent cocktails,” says Jerry Gonto, co-owner of Martiniart.com. 

The Summer of Sarah-Tini toasts the former Alaska governor. She’s out of the race - or is she? 

Mamma grizzly Sarah Palin says she’s not running for president, but she’s on the road to something. Her bus is crossing the land and she’s speaking her mind. The Palin-inspired martini has a frisky kick. 

“It’s a fine refreshment after a family road trip,” Gonto notes. 

One of these martinis and you won’t care what you can see from your porch. 

The Summer of Sarah-Tini

1 medium cucumber, sliced

10 ounces pepper vodka, freezer chilled

1 Serrano pepper

2 lime slices 

Place sliced cucumber in pitcher of water and steep refrigerated overnight. Fill ice cube trays with cucumber water and freeze. Fill martini shakers three-quarters full with cracked cucumber ice cubes. Pour the vodka into the shaker and allow it to sit for two full minutes. 

Cut the Serrano pepper in half and rub insides of two ice-cold martini glasses with the cut pepper surface. Shake the martini mix in the shaker for one full minute, then strain the martini into each glass. Garnish each with a lime slice and serve.  

If that’s too spicy, consider the Bachmann Overdrive. It’s crisp, cool and possesses a polished punch.  Named for GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachman – congresswoman, attorney, mother of five - the Bachmann Overdrive has a splash of tea and gets a soft kick from vanilla vodka. 

The Bachmann Overdrive

10 ounces vanilla flavored vodka, freezer chilled

Splash of unflavored tea

1 lemon (half sliced, half zested)

Granulated sugar 

Fill shaker three-quarters full with cracked ice. Add vodka and allow to sit two full minutes. Add splash of tea and shake. Rub rims of two chilled martini glasses with lemon wedge. Dip rim of glasses in sugar to coat. Pour martini mixture into glasses and serve sprinkled with lemon zest. 

The martini, beloved by FDR, Churchill, Hemingway and Rockefeller, is the quintessential American cocktail, Gonto notes. Writer H.L. Mencken called it “the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet.” 

It promises to be a long hot summer in the run-up to the presidential campaign, and Martini Guy Gonto will have the martini to go with it – in the belief that no matter how good or bad things get, they are made better with a cool, martini glass in hand. 

About www.MartiniArt.com

Martiniart.com grew from Jerry and Linda Gonto’s love of the martini in all its incarnations. The site offers martini glasses, shakers, recipes, party ideas, gourmet olives, a lively blog and martini mood music. Yes, they’re all about martinis, but they believe in moderation. If you have a martini, you have no business behind the wheel. 

Contact:  Jerry Gonto, co-owner, Martiniart.com, Toll free 888-654-8312.

 

Fresh Basil Martini

We met some new fellow martini drinkers last weekend, and they gave us a super simple recipe for a Fresh Basil Martini.  We tried it out, and we're here to share our findings.  Here goes:

You need:  fresh basil, a really good vodka, a shaker, a muddler, crushed ice, and a really awesome glass from www.martiniart.com.

What to do:  take a small bunch of fresh basil and put it in the shaker and use the muddler to muddle the basil.  Add your really good vodka to the shaker with ice.  How much?  That is up to you, and the size of your glass, there are no other mixes going in.  Shake it up and strain into your really cool martini glass.  (from where?  you know the answer to that!)

What you should see and other things you can do:  you should see a pale green martini (especially if you use a clear glass) with just a little bit of basil floating around.  You could garnish with a basil leaf and call it done, but here are some other options:

-Add a squeeze of lemon and a twist

-Add a drop of Ouzo (this is really good as it enhances the licorice flavor)

-Add olive juice and an olive garnish

-Garnish with a cherry tomato, or a slice of tomato, and a piece of fresh mozzarella cheese for a liquid caprice salad! 

Any way you do it, if this kind of drink is up your alley, we're sure you'll like it and come up with other variations.  It is a really fresh drink-a bit of summer in a glass.  Cheers!

 

Cool Fathers Day Gifts!

Here's a little more shameless self promotion...we think we have great product, especially when you need a cool gift that is martini or cocktail related.  There is still enough time to get a gift sent for Fathers Day, or we can expedite, but shipping is always free when you spend $75.00 (contiguous U.S.)  You have to click the button for it!

The first cool gift is called The Shot Tender.  It is a wall or bar mounted gizmo that gives you a pour with the bottle upside down.  How professional and bar like!  A great addition to any home bar, so you have your favorite bottle ready to go, and there are no messes or spills.

The next cool gift is The Jumbo Acrylic Shaker.  This bad dog can mix a whole bunch of drinks at one time, is clear plastic and easy to handle.  The other nifty thing to do with these is fill them with random gifty items, so the shaker becomes the box.  We have done that here at Martiniart, filled them with little bottles of alcohol, cocktail napkins, olive picks, little books, any thing that was cocktail related and that could fit.  That is a fun gift!

Lastly, is our "Chilly Bottle Bag."  This is one of those great ideas that I wish I thought of.  It's a bottle bag made of plastic and "liquid" stuff in the bag that you can freeze to keep your bottle chilled.  The best analogy is like those blue ice packs for your cooler-well, this is the same type of concept except that it's a bottle bag.  We have them in blue, red, purple, green and gold.  You put the bag in the freezer and let it freeze, then when you are ready to go where you're going, put your bottle in and it will keep it chilled.  The reason this is a cool gift is because if you are giving a bottle to someone (Dad), you can have it chilled are ready to go!

If you haven't visited us on Facebook, please do!  Watch for an upcoming special on these bottle bags-only of Facebook!  Otherwise, visit www.martiniart.com for more cool gifts, and details on the above mentioned items.

Your best friend calls you and tells you he/she's really sick? How do you show you care?

How about a nice Pear Martini??

Perfect for warm weather-here's the recipe:

2 oz Grey Goose LaPoire
1 oz ginger liqour
1 oz simple syrup
1 oz fresh lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with lots of ice, shake, and strain into a beautiful martini glass from www.martiniart.com ! Garnish with a pear slice.

Cheers!

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Sky Juice-a-tini!

For those of you that have heard of Sky Juice, this is a take on that particular drink.  For those of you that haven't heard of it, it is a drink that consists of gin, coconut water, canned or pet milk and lime.  Kind of tropical, maybe with origins in the Bahamas or Carribean.  At our martini testing lab this past weekend, we simplified the recipe, turned it into a martini, and thought this would be a great recipe to share for Memorial Day weekend.  Here goes:

1 part Rangpur gin

2 parts Coconut water

Lime wedges

Shaker, ice, and a cool martini glass

Add the gin and coconut water to the shaker with ice and shake away.  Pour into a martini glass and garnish with a wedge of lime.  With the gin, the Rangpur has a lime and botanical base, so it is an interesting mix with the coconut water.  The coconut water we used is by Taste Nirvana.  When you create your "parts" it will depend on the size of glass you'll serve the drink in.  Also, if you're uber creative and adventurous, you could crack a coconut, add a little of the milk to the shaker so it adds more richness to the drink, and it will be more opaque.  Cut some coconut out and add that and lime to a cocktail pick for garnish and nibbling.  We had some gin converts from this drink! 

Also, don't forget the cool martini glass that you need to serve this in!  We got ya covered at www.martiniart.com!  Cheers!

Fathers Day-Make Dad a Mad Scientist!

Now that Mothers Day is behind us, the next mini holiday is Fathers Day.  No, I have not forgotten Memorial Day!  But, for Fathers Day we want to get you started on thinking of martini related gifts, so we'll start with the "Martini Madness Chemistry Set."  This set includes a cocktail shaker, beaker, some test tubes, all in a stand worthy of your high school chemistry class.  Dad can be a cocktail wizard with this set-mixing up some crazy potions.  We are happy to bring this set back after having it on hiatus for a while, plus what do you get the guy that has everything, anyway?  This is a nifty gift, under $50.00, and would be a great addition to any bar.  Stop by and visit www.martiniart.com!

Martiniart.com goes mobile!

We just launched the mobile version of martiniart.com...just hit us from your smartphone and shop away!

Martini your Mommy with a Mojito-Martini

Here is another good recipe for Mothers Day, or for going into warm weather...this is a Green Tea Mojito Martini.  Here is the recipe:  steep 2 green tea or mint green tea bags in a cup of boiling water for 3-5 minutes.  Add a tablespoon of sugar and stir to disolve, then let cool.  To a shaker, add the cup of green tea, 4 ounces of rum, juice from half a lime, and ice.  Shake up and pour into 2 martini glasses.  This is optional- you can add a splash of club soda to give a bit of fizz, then garnish with a lime wedge or mint leaves. 

Another option to this is to use gin.  It certainly won't be a mojito anymore!  Gin pairs nicely with tea, as both have herbal qualities,so you'd have a version of a gin martini crossed with a gin and tonic.

Enjoy and cheers!