Elite Traveler January-February 2016

INFLUENCE DRINKS COLUMN

Emyr Thomas on the best martini in London

Emyr Thomas, founder of BonVivant, has drunkhis way aroundmany a bar inLondon. Here he shares his favoritemartini in the city. (Dry, with a twist and stirred – but only gently)

potent drink that is now ingrained in modern culture. So how can something with just three ingredients be so difficult to perfect? A good martini should linger on the lips, dance on the palate and evoke memories of the company you kept the last time you enjoyed one. Such martinis are not easy to come by, so the good ones make their mark. And in London, I know just where to find them. Traditionalists may favor the martinis served at Dukes Bar, where it is said Ian Fleming coined the phrase ‘shaken not stirred’, but you’ll find me Order the Connaught Martini and a white-gloved mixologist will bring a beautiful, Art Deco inspired martini trolley laden with gins and bespoke bitters to your table: lavender, cilantro, cardamom, ginger, grapefruit, vanilla and licorice all to choose from. Using 75ml of premium gin and 15ml of vermouth (the crisp Gancia Dry from Italy, only available at the Connaught Bar), the mixologist will pour over ice and stir gently: Connaught martinis are only quietly stirred, never shaken. Into a frozen glass, the liquid is poured from a height in a moment of pure theater. An elegant movement of the hand and the twist is added. And the taste? Crisp, cool and exquisite. The story goes that one martini is not enough, two will be too much but three never enough. However you like to drink it – whether a pre-dinner drink or a lost afternoon over a martini lunch, straight up, dirty or with a twist – the martini is a drink to savor, celebrate and treasure, and the Connaught Bar is the perfect place to do just that. Emyr Thomas is the founder of Bon Vivant, a London-based luxury travel and concierge service at the Connaught Bar at The Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. The martinis served at the Connaught Bar are peerless for me, and the setting – mirrors, low lighting, silver leaf, tasteful palette, lots of plush seating for intimate conversation – is sublime.

Wet, dry or extra dry? Straight up with a twist or dirty? Vodka or gin? Shaken or stirred? Ordering a martini is usually accompanied by a minefield of questions, the answers to which could say a lot about your character. James Bond famously liked his shaken not stirred; Ernest Hemingway is said to have favored a Montgomery martini (15 parts gin to one part vermouth, named after the general who wouldn’t attack unless he outnumbered the enemy 15 to one); while Winston Churchill, though known for his love of whisky, was also partial to a dry, ice-cold gin martini and preferred to look at the vermouth bottle from a distance rather than have any included in his drink. And mine? Gin, dry, gently stirred, straight up with a twist. To purists, a martini is gin and Vermouth – nothing more, nothing less – but others would disagree. What about the bitters, the lemon twist, the olive? And what about the ratio of gin to vermouth? A wet martini is typically made with three parts gin and one part

vermouth, which contrasts distinctly with a dry martini, whose modern day proportion can be anything from a ratio of 5:1 to even just having the bottle of vermouth waved over the top of the glass. The simplest of drinks has so many different incarnations. A glance back at its history might go some way to explain why, as there is little consensus around its provenance. While some say the drink derived from a cocktail called the Martinez that was served in San Francisco in the late 1860s, others believe it was first served as a drink in the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York in the 1910s. Another legend claims that it was named after the Martini & Henry rifle used by the British Army for 20 years between 1870 and 1890 (both the rifle and the drink delivered a strong kick). Did asking for gin and Martini result in the drink taking on the brand name of the Martini Vermouth used? We will never know exactly, but what we do know is that the martini’s three key ingredients – gin, vermouth and bitters – creates a gloriously

A goodmartini should linger on the lips, dance on the palate and evoke memories of the company you kept last time you enjoyed one

Photo: Alamy