Do you have a hard time making up your mind? Prone to hedging your bets when it comes to food or drink orders? Fond of splitting the difference with combos? If so, you are someone I can relate to! Here’s a martini to gladden both our hearts.
The Indecisive Martini started as my beloved, extra wet, 50/50 gin and vermouth martini referenced in my very first recipes for Bullz-Eye. You see, sometimes even a 50/50 gin martini is a little too heavy on astringent and herbal flavors for my taste. Yet a 50/50 made with vodka might be too tidy. I split the difference and made it a 50/25/25 split.
The Indecisive Martini
2 ounces dry vermouth
1 ounce gin
1 once vodka
1 dash orange bitters (optional but recommended)
Combine all of the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mixing glass with lots of ice. Stir vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the garnish of your choice. Make a decision to enjoy yourself and have a sip!
*****
Reducing the amount of gin leads to a flavor some may find over plain but which I find smoothed out, but not bland. As always with martinis, your choice of alcoholic ingredients will matter a lot.
My vodkas were 100-proof Stolichnaya, standard 80-proof Stoli, and some Deep Eddy I got on super-special for an absurdly low price. The 100-proof stuff definitely added an extra kick that was fine, but the 80-proof vodka offered a cleaner smoother taste. Although I think Deep Eddy tastes very slightly sweet in comparison to Stoli, both vodkas produced similar flavors in my indecisive formulation.
My most obstreperous gin choice was Bombay Sapphire; as hoped, the other ingredients tamed all those fancy aromatic herbals. Gordon’s Gin, on the other hand, comes pre-tamed so this was maybe the closest thing to a vodka 50/50. It was still easy, but not too dull, drinking. The Goldilocks prize – not too herbal and not at all plain — goes to Plymouth Gin which I picked up for the first time in years. Plymouth is both a brand and a type of gin that is a micro-smidgen sweeter than the ubiquitous London dry style. It brings plenty of flavor but is beautifully manicured, especially in the 50/25/25 formulations. That was even more the case when it was combined with slightly less dry vermouth.
Finally, it’s time for our more reserved star of the show — vermouth. I used two standards, Martini and Noilly Pratt. Both of these are extra dry which I think makes them taste more astringent. What of it? Europeans have decided that this is what Americans like! Anyhow, they worked great but I have a real soft spot for the more expensive but also smoother and, I guess, sweeter flavor of Dolin’s [not extra]dry. It made for a decisively smoother, lovelier martini.
