Wet Martini

Oh dear sweet, classic martini. We've had quite a go of it: me hating you, you getting me too drunk. They certainly have been classic times, but now we've come to the end. The wet martini is the last variation on the classic martini in my little black book. And after all the fun, I've finally come to appreciate the combination of vermouth and vodka.

A friend of mine described enjoying martinis because they taste "clean" which I laughed about at the time. Now, I have to agree - there's a purity to the taste of a martini. I think I might order this at a bar sometime.

1 1/2 ounces gin or vodka

1 1/2 ounces dry vermouth

-Stir with ice cubes and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

In other news, I just finished reading the play for which my blog is named: Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill. I enjoyed it, and didn't realize when I named my blog how appropriate the title would be. They drink like crazy throughout the entire thing, so I think I might have a whiskey rocks at the end of the project in acknowledgment of the namesake.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sweet Martini

Here's an issue with my note taking process: I usually write a few thoughts down only after my first few sips of a drink, leaving the tail end of my experience completely undocumented. I do so largely because I want to have a somewhat authentic experience and not create a Hawthorne Effect by observing myself to death. All of which is just a preamble to this: I remember actually enjoying my sweet martini, but all my notes are contrary to that notion. Hmm. I think I disliked the first few sips, but got into it by the end. I distinctly remember finishing this martini completely, which is something I don't usually do.

I want to stress that this is the sweet version of the classic martini and not some pseudo martini in the modern vernacular. I did make it dirty, but with less olive brine than before. I also had a sip of a friend's martini last week in New York, and I liked it. Maybe martinis just taste better there? They also seem to lead to being sick on the subway platform, so maybe I don't need to learn to like New York martinis (Note: I was not the sick one, just to be clear).

2 ounces vodka (or gin)

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

-Stir over ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Well, as it goes my tastes seem to be developing if only I could remember drinks when it came time to order at the bar. Doing this blog has made me a target for drink questions, and I always draw a blank. 89 unique recipes since September and you'd think I could come up with something. Not so much.

Well, enjoy and bottoms up!

Martinez

I'm sorry to be such a cocktail failure, but all I remember about the martinez is that it tasted slightly better than I expected. I'm not even going to make anything up. I'll just pack it in and do better next time.

3/4 ounces gin

3/4 ounces dry vermouth

1/2 ounce Cointreau

Dash of bitters

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Espresso Martini

I vote that this drink needs to move to the dessert drinks chapter because it was just a cup of delicious. I didn't really get much coffee flavor, just chocolate. Boozy chocolate delicious.

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 Créme de Cacao

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I'm really starting to have a beef with the modernization of the martini, and it's not because I have any kind of fondness for the original. How does the espresso "martini" resemble the classic drink? It's served in the same glassware. Well yes, but so is the sidecar and that's not in the martini chapter. Maybe because it has vodka? There are plenty of drinks that have vodka and are not martinis. Is it the stirring instead of shaking? Nope, you stir old fashioneds and manhattans as well.

I move that it should not be a martini unless it is served in a cocktail glass, contains BOTH gin/vodka and vermouth, and is stirred. The name martini should denote something about the flavor profile, and in it's modern usage it doesn't. When I'm ordering a cocktail, I want the name to tell me something about how it's going to taste, not how it's prepared.

Tequini

Do you want to do shots of tequila while pretending to be classy? Have a tequini. There's a little bit of vermouth (that is almost completely overshadowed by the tequila), but otherwise there's not much difference between this drink and taking a swig from the bottle.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing...I've certainly had much much much worse drinks throughout this project. The downside: I had one tequini and a glass of wine and woke up with a legit hangover the next day. I'm not one to be felled by only two drinks, but I didn't get out of bed until 11 and felt like crap for several more hours. Beware is all I'm saying. Here at LYJIA, we (I) promote functional alcoholism ;-)

1 1/2 ounce tequila

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Also thanks to a new blog by my lovely friend Alex (read it!), and a potential new blog from El (who's still working out the details), I've been reinvigorated with drink project enthusiasm! (Also I had enough money to actually go to the liquor store and buy some new stuff). Get ready to hear about some fantastic new drinks, and hopefully the halfway point in the project!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sapphire Martini

I have a to do list for today, and I will get it done. It's not even that long or filled with distasteful things, I've just become so so so lazy. Definitely a reason I'm eager to re-enter the world of academics before my body shrivels until only my eyes, ears, hands, mouth and stomach work. Those will never atrophy because you need them to watch things on the internet and eat food. Brain? Size of a pea. Stomach? Reaching out to the outer edges of the universe and expanding along with it.

But today, today I have showered and have almost finished cleaning my room. And now I'm blogging, which has unfortunately turned into something I put on my to do list. A couple of days ago, I realized I was actually behind in my drink making. For shame. I've completed 77 recipes when I should have 80 done. It's getting tough because I need to make a trip to the liquor store but I'm trying to save money for my trip to the East Coast. At least I have three jobs now, if only I could get hours at two of them.

So all of that was basically just prelude to me not really remembering the drink that I'm supposed to be writing about. I think it was okay, much better than I thought it was going to be and certainly drinkable, but nothing to write the folks at home about. Do what you will with that. Thanks for reading my drivel to get two wishy washy sentences about the actual drink. Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin

1/2 ounce blue Curaçao liqueur

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Medium Martini

Ugh, it's official: I don't like martinis. Vodka martinis are only marginally offensive, but proper gin martinis are terrible. I don't know why anyone would choose to drink this if it weren't part of a year-long cocktail project.

I had this one after watching the Ducks beat the Beavers to go to the Rose Bowl!!! I was also celebrating my first day of training for my new job!! However, every time I took a sip, I made a reflexive "ick" face and it left a really bad taste in the back of my throat. I still have several versions of the classic martini to go, and I'm not particularly looking forward to it.

What I am looking forward to: people coming back for winter break! First up? Game night at my parents' house among their Christmas decor!

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Crantini

I can't believe I've found a crantini image that is also a Christmas image. It's going to be a fabulous day!

Someone commented that there should be more back story (hi Alex!), so now you're going to get to hear about the events that led up to the first sip of the drink, at least the events of yesterday.

I mentioned last post that I have been feeling the Christmas spirit, and yesterday I officially did it: I put Christmas music on my ipod. So epic! I took the EmX downtown and walked around listening to carols before meeting Ben and El for some lunch and library before going to the holiday market. We made the rounds there, seeing some nice things but only Ben made purchases (good ones at that).

From there, my mom picked me up and we hit up Tjoes before the game where the Ducks beat Arizona in double OT! These kinds of football games are really exciting but also really upsetting: I get so nervous that I can't even watch the play and just use "it's only football" as my mantra. I watch these kinds of sports games like some people watch horror films: through my fingers.

After all that, I came home and had a cratini to wind down. It is pretty much like a cape codder only not on the rocks. Still, it was more welcome than I expected it to be:

1 1/2 ounces vodka

2 ounces cranberry juice

1/3 ounce lime juice

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Mint Martini

Yay, I'm back! I plan on being on a more regular cocktail making schedule this week. Not because I was productive this week, but because it doesn't seem to matter whether I make cocktails or not, I'm always unproductive. But I always say that it could be worse than unproductive: there's also counterproductive, and I wasn't that.

Anywho, mint martinis are great and should be in your mouth this holiday season. It's pretty easy to imagine what they taste like: just think of how your mouth feels after brushing your teeth. Drop a peppermint candy in for extra effect.

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1 ounce peppermint schnapps

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I hope you've all been well and are getting excited for the holiday season! The Christmas crackhead hit me hard over the head last night and made off with my sanity. I probably won't get it back 'til January.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Midnight Martini

Yum! The first sip is a little strong on this one, but you quickly get used to it and it's a nice twist on a martini. More interesting than the apple martini but not as strong as the classic. Drank this while avoiding work all of yesterday, which I'm continuing to do today. Bah. Here's how you can avoid work too!

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1/4 ounce coffee liqueur

1/4 ounce triple sec

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Saketini

This wasn't only my first saketini, it was my first time trying sake! I don't really know that much about sake, only that it's a rice wine from Japan. I went with the one that had the cutest bottle, haha. It went something like this:

The smell of it reminded me of beer at first, like halfway between between white wine and beer. It's really nice actually and am drinking it alone right now. In combination with the gin, it mostly tasted like the gin, but with a little smoother element. The sake takes away some of the alcohol's bite while leaving the spiciness. Pretty good.

1 1/2 ounce gin

1/4 ounce sake

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Apple Martini

So now we are on drinks that have happened since Halloween. But one last bit of business: I never revealed what my costume was! I was Queen Frostine from Candyland, and El was Princess Lolli while two of our other friends were Mr. Mint and one of the little kids. We're pretty genius, I know.

Anyway, so my apple martini did not have a floating flower in it. A shame really. It was also not nearly so bright green in color. In all honesty, I don't really remember it that well because it's been 5 or 6 days since I drank it, which tells you a bit about how life-changing it was. Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 ounces vodka (regular or apple flavored)

1/2 ounce apple liqueur

Splash of lemon juice

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I seem to remember that this was just a very girly way to pretend to be drinking a martini. If you want to sound cool ordering a martini, but don't want the trouble of actually drinking something that tastes even vaguely like one, go with the apple martini.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Martini Royale

Part II of my Halloween drinking shenanigans: a martini with gin and champagne. Now, I haven't yet had a classic gin martini (only vodka martinis), so I can't specifically speak to how this version departs from the classic in flavor. I will say that I couldn't taste the champagne too much and it tasted almost entirely of gin for me; however, I have learned to like gin quite a bit making this one a nice experience. Strong though.

2 ounces gin

champagne

-Pour gin in cocktail glass and fill with champagne.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a third installment of Halloween drinking! I will be making the big reveal as to what my costume was! (For those of you who don't know already)

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Classic Martini/Sex on the Beach/Cape Codder

Okay, so this the drunkest blog so far by a mile. There will likely be typos and droning on and other forms of confusing nonsense. A predictable flaw when blogging about drinking.

My first cocktail began when I realized that vermouth is a type of wine and can therefore be purchased in Oregon grocery stores, forgoing the annoying trip to the liquor store. I should mention that I do not have a driver's license and the liquor store is not exactly walking distance. I consider it simply another challenge to be overcome along my road to cocktail glory.

I was at local grocery store MoC when I spotted the vermouth for a price I could afford and decided it was time to put a check mark in the chapter dedicated to martinis. I will give you a condensed version of what said chapter has in its introduction: gin or vodka blah blah lounge lizards blah blah purists blah blah 1960s blah blah cold cold COLD COLD! Yep.

The moral of the story is that the traditional martini is made of gin and vermouth, but vodka is often substituted for gin, which is what I did since I haven't purchased gin yet. Also, I hate gin. The less vermouth (or more gin/vodka) a martini has, the drier it is. Over the years, the zeitgeist has moved toward a drier martini. Also, everything involved in a martini, from the glassware to the alcohol to the utensils should be cold...from the freezer where appropriate.

The version I made tonight is the "Classic Martini." There are many different ratios in my book, and I will explore them in the future. There are also other flavors of martini that I will explore. Blather blather here's the recipe:

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

-Ignore Bond and stir don't shake. Stir over ice cubes, not cracked ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

I have heard stories about how terrible martinis are, and I don't think I would have enjoyed this at an earlier point in my drinking career. However, tonight it was pretty alright. It's definitely not a yummy yummy I-can't-even-tell-this-is-booze type of drink, but I liked it. I drank it while re-watching "Goodnight and Good Luck" and eating pasta, which I recommend as a mighty fine trio. Fab film. I used Absolute vodka and Boissiere extra dry vermouth.

Sex on the Beach, however, was a delicious experience, and one that I wasn't particularly expecting. As follows:

1 ounce vodka

3 ounce cranberry juice

2 ounce pineapple juice

1 ounce orange juice

1 ounce peach schnapps

This is pretty much the definition of girly drink. I couldn't taste the alcohol at all. You can also do either all pineapple juice or all orange juice if you aren't mixer rich like me. I couldn't even tell how cheap and terrible the peach schnapps were. Also, was watching From Justin to Kelly while drinking this one. I really think the stars aligned for my movie/drink combinations tonight, haha.

My last drink of the evening was a Cape Codder. I mostly made this because I invested in some cranberry juice the other night and this is an easy drink. Now, I'm usually not such a cran fan, but it's a pretty popular mixer so I made the leap. I stood in the aisle having the debate with myself: cran cocktail or proper cran juice. Cran cocktail seems terrible, but it's cheap for a college student. Cran juice doesn't add sugar: who doesn't want sugar? In the end, despite myself, I went home with the real thing: L&A's 100% no sugar added cranberry juice. BEST DECISION EVER. This drink was about 10 million times better than I thought it would be and I think the quality of the mixer had everything to do with that.

2 ounces vodka

4-6 ounces cranberry juice (I went with 5 personally)

-Mix in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and pour into iced glass. Can add a bit of lime juice if desired (I definitely desired).

Enjoy and bottoms up!