291 ml

Make two great martinis:

  1. Pour 250 ml of gin1 in a pitcher.
  2. Add as much ice as you can.
  3. Add dry vermouth 2 (Noilly Prat is good if you can get it) until you’re at 291 ml.
  4. Shake in some Fee Brothers Gin Barrel-Aged Orange Bitters

Stir3 this for at least a minute and then strain into two martini or coupe glasses. You’ll get about 205 ml per drink.

1 Bombay Dry (not Sapphire) is my go-to gin. Tanquery is better; there’s a bit more nose to it, so it’s warmer and softer at the same time. As for the other big name, Beefeater is also delicious. There are a number of other, more expensive gins that you can experiment with. I wouldn’t go much higher in proof with this classic, but Plymouth, Bulldog, and Hendricks are all excellent.

2 Ignore exhortations to leave out vermouth. Swishing it in the glass and pouring it out, glancing at the bottle… all cute but glib. Add vermouth; 6:1 gin:vermouth is a good place to start.

3 Stir, don’t shake. You don’t need a bar spoon but stirring will teach you the correct way to agitate the drink. Shaking makes the drink too watery and cloudy.