BC Living
Local Easter Offerings to Try This Spring
Delicatessens Across B.C.: More Than Just High-End Grocers
March Sushi – From Scratch
4 Tips on Balancing a Nutritious Diet with a Side of Indulgence
Choosing Connection: A BC Family Day Pledge to Prioritize Presence Over Plans
Embracing Plant-Based Living this Veganuary and Beyond
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
Plan Your BC Foodie Field Trip
Kamloops & Sun Peaks Resort: The Ultimate See & Ski Family Getaway
Local Getaway: Stay at an Elven Haven in Courtenay
B.C. Adventures: Our picks for April
Cooking Classes
Culinary Cinema
Culinary Fashion: What to wear on “Foodie Field Trips”
Freshen Up your Skincare this Spring with these 9 BC Based Skincare Products
Are you getting the most from your expertly cultivated and perfectly aged wine collection?
Become a martini maestro with these tips that will have friends shouting, "Barkeep, I'll have another!"
Shaken or stirred? It all comes down to personal preference
Martinis have come a long way since the original Martinez (two parts red vermouth, one part gin and a dash of maraschino liqueur).
Justin Taylor, head bartender at Yew Restaurant & Bar in the Four Seasons Hotel, Vancouver (and representing Canada at the Giffard International Cocktail Challenge in France), shares a simple recipe for creating a better martini bar right at home.
Q. What is – and isn’t – a martini? A. A martini implies gin and vermouth; you can throw vodka and vermouth in the same category. Over time, the martini evolved to more gin and less vermouth, and the vermouth changed from red to white. Martini is the formal name of this specific drink; everything else is a cocktail.
Q. What are the must-haves for my home martini bar? A. The number one thing is glassware. You need durable glass that won’t chip. A really nice martini glass isn’t necessarily the traditional V shape. There’s a coupe glass which has a more rounded shape, or you can use an old-fashioned glass.
You need a proper mixing glass like a Boston shaker, which is a 16-ounce pint glass, and a steel part that is slightly larger than the glass. You need a strainer like a Hawthorne strainer, which is a metal piece with a rounded coil to stop the ice from getting into your drink.
Those are the essentials; without them you can’t produce a good drink.
Q. Which really is better, shaken or stirred? A. It’s personal taste. From a bartender’s perspective, the rule of thumb is if it’s stirred, the only ingredient is alcohol. If shaken, there are juices involved. They have different viscosities and you shake to infuse them better, but then again, that’s a cocktail not a martini.
Yew Restaurant | Gourmet Warehouse | Cocktail Kingdom
Originally published in BC Home magazine. For updates, subscribe to the free Home e-newsletter, or purchase a subscription to the bi-monthly magazine.