TASTE
TEST
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HUFFINGTON
12.22.13
Ginning Up a Spot-On Martini
BY JOE SATRAN
’M NOT A BIG FAN of
martinis. They often
strike me as too astringent and bracing, with
too much bitterness and too little
acidity. And I suspect that I’m not
alone. Despite their central place
in the cocktail pantheon, I rarely
see people drinking them in bars,
and I rarely encounter someone
who cites it as their default drink.
Still, they’re one of the oldest
I
THE GINS
cocktails around, a holiday favorite, and usually one of the first
names out of people’s mouths
when they are asked to name a
mixed drink. So when we were
brainstorming cocktails to put
through the Taste Test ringer, they
were near the top of our list.
We assembled four leading
brands of vermouth — two expensive ones and two cheap ones — to
pair with the nine types of gin we
From left to right, with prices per bottle: New Amsterdam ($14 for 750 mL), Hendrick’s ($41 for 1 L),
Gordon’s ($24 for 1.75 L), Plymouth ($36 for 1 L), Brooklyn ($42 for 750 mL), Georgi ($10 for 750
mL), Tanqueray ($30 for 1 L), Bombay Sapphire ($35 for 1 L), Beefeater ($28 for 1 L)
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAMON DAHLEN