World Martini Day
Jun 02, 2025
World Martini Day is on the third Saturday in June, and few cocktails carry quite as much mythology and prestige. This is a cocktail you want to be able to make well, because if your guest is ordering one, it probably means they have expectations on what you’ll be serving them.
If we want to think of this in terms of rules to follow
1) It should be as cold as possible
2) Your guest usually chooses their preferred style
When we talk about guest preferences, we’re referring to 3 choices that they need to be make. Assuming they don’t tell you when they order, and simply ask for “a Martini”, you’re first response should be:
“How do you like it?”
From there, a guest who orders a martini will usually have a preferred order and give you the information that you need.
You might find yourself with a guest wanting to try a martini for the first time, in which case you’ll be guiding them through their choices and potentially providing recommendations based on your preferences or experience.
They will be choosing between:
• Gin or Vodka?
• How much vermouth? Dry would mean less vermouth, wet would mean more vermouth. Dirty would mean the addition of olive brine (probably to a dry martini)
• What’s their preferred garnish? A twist (typically a lemon zest), olives, or maybe a pickled onion.
The combination of these, especially when you start adding different spirits brands to the equation, gives you endless possibilities for variation, so it’s well worth experimenting with them yourself to understand the differences in flavour.
Here are some guidelines to get you started. These are approximate ratios that can be tweaked to fit your requirements.
In and Out: 10 ml Vermouth stirred and then discarded (this coats the ice with a tiny amount of vermouth), 60 ml Spirit
Extra dry: 55 ml spirit, 5 ml vermouth
Dry: 50 ml spirit, 10 ml Dry vermouth
Wet: 40 ml spirit, 20 ml Dry vermouth
50:50: 30 ml Spirit, 30 ml Dry Vermouth
Dirty: 40 ml spirit, 15 ml brine (depending on the brine), 5 ml Dry vermouth
Vesper: 40 ml Gin, 10 ml Vodka, 10 ml Lillet Blanc
Gibson: Garnished with a pickled cocktail onion, commonly in a Dry Martini.
The number of variations might look intimidating at first, but with this template, you’ll see that the total liquid always adds up to 60ml, so it’s pretty easy to remember.
Next, we move on to the most important aspect of the martini.
Temperature:.
You want your martini to be as cold as possible. A rule of thumb is that the finished serve going out to your guest should be below -4ºc. (But colder than that is always better!). With that in mind, here are some tips for perfecting the Martini. The more of these you can implement, the colder your martini will be.
• Start with cold ingredients; your ice and liquid ingredients should be as close to the same temperature as possible to minimise dilution. In a perfect world, you’ll be able to keep your Gin and Vodka and stirring glasses in the freezer.
• Stir with as much ice as will fit into the stirring glass. (Despite James Bond’s preference, martinis are usually stirred to keep them crystal clear. Shaking it adds air to the drink, making it cloudy. If your guest requests a shaken martini, then make it to their preference, but you don’t need to check.)
• The amount of time you need to stir will still depend on the temperature of the ingredients you started with. You should be tasting and feeling the glass for temperature (you can also invest in an instant-read thermometer whilst you’re developing your technique) to know when it’s ready. Room temperature ingredients will probably need to be stirred for around 30 seconds, assuming your ice cubes are solid, rather than hollow. If you used frozen ingredients, they can be stirred for longer, as the rate of dilution is slower.
• Perfect execution is a drink with a great balance of dilution and temperature, with a mixing glass that is uncomfortably cold to touch when you’ve completed stirring.
• Strain your Martini into a frozen glass. If you don’t have space for frozen glassware, ensure that you chill the glass with ice for the time it takes to prepare the drink.
• The garnish should also be coming out of the fridge. A room temperature olive will ruin all the hard work you’ve done chilling your drink!
To give you an idea of the variety of Martini orders out there, we caught up with our Diageo Bar Academy team to find out their go-to Martini specs. Give you some different recipes to try and get a feel for the differences.
Tracy Gardner @tequilatracy
Diageo Brand Ambassador VIC and TAS
My favourite is with Ketel One, Churchill style, with an olive.
60ml Ketel One Vodka
Garnished with 2 Olives
Approx 1.9 std drinks.
A “Churchill Martini” refers to the legend that Churchill would ask his bartenders to stir his martini whilst glancing at an unopened bottle of vermouth (instead of adding the vermouth to the drink).
Kate McGraw @katelikescocktails
World Class Ambassador
50 ml Tanqueray No TEN
25 ml Spanish Dry Vermouth (if it's around, otherwise French is my next bet)
Approx 2.2 Std Drinks
“Stirred until it’s colder than an Antarctic winter and garnished with a lemon twist”
Simone Sanna @thesbagliatontour
DIageo Brand Ambassador WA and SA
It changes, but I lean to a dry Tanqueray No. TEN martini with a twist!
50 ml Tanqueray No TEN
10 ml Dry Vermouth
Garnished with a lemon twist
Approx 2 Std Drinks
Kelsey Blacksmith @kelsey_ontherocks
Diageo Brand Ambassador NSW and ACT
I like a wet Ketel One martini with a twist.
50 ml Ketel One Vodka
20 ml Dry vermouth
Garnished with a lemon twist
Approx 1.9 Std Drinks
Nick Veale
Diageo Bar Academy Training Manager
My current go-to is a wet Gin Martini with olives on the side.
60 ml Tanqueray
20 ml Dry Vermouth
Garnished with olives on the Side
Approx 2.2 Std Drinks
Key Takeaways
• There is no “right way” to drink/ prepare a martini, so make sure you’re talking to your guest about their preferences, or be ready to offer a recommendation.
• They need to be as cold as possible!
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