Posted on 04/23/2010 8:24:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
It may seem an oxymoron: a liquid dessert occupying the same title as that most sophisticated of drinks. Plenty of cocktail enthusiasts think it sacrilegious when a bartender approaches a martini glass with Hershey's syrup. And they are right. The ubiquitous alcoholic mousse is empty calories and ultimately an empty experience. Besides — it's a girlie drink! Wouldn't you feel a little foolish ordering up one of these? I've done it so you don't have to.
The drink above comes from The Olde Stone Mill (Tuckahoe, New York), which has the dubious distinction of starring in Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Under new management, the bar has expanded its lounge menu to include many dessert drinks — even the venerable Manhattan has raspberry in it. Talk about a nightmare.
It is possible, though, to have your (chocolate) cake and drink it too, without the inanity of sipping on a fermented devil dog. Some time ago, during Restaurant Week on Cape Cod, I ducked into one of my favorite haunts and surreptitiously asked for a chocolate martini. Now mind you, this bar is the one that taught me how to make the true chocolate martini. Once, standing in front of the vodka display in a New York City liquor store, I called the proprietor and asked him for his drink recipe. Chris Wilson graciously walked me through it, step by step. Imagine my surprise, then, when the bartender served me up something that looked like a tootsie roll. My raised eyebrow must have been obvious because the bartender immediately asked me what was wrong. I told her it wasn't what I had expected.
"Oh, you want a Classic Chocolate Martini. I'm so sorry. Most of the people who order the chocolate martini want one of these. I'll make you another drink."
And she did and it was perfect. This drink is pleasing in a dark chocolate kind of way — it's sophisticated and not overly sweet.
Here is the Painted Lady's Classic Chocolate Martini recipe:
4 oz. Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka (chilled) 2 oz. clear creme de cacao
Chill a martini glass. Moisten the rim and place glass upside down on a superfine sugar and cocoa powder blend. Combine your ingredients (all two of them) into a chilled cocktail shaker, stir, and strain into the glass. Add a piece of chocolate.
Couldn't be simpler or more tasty.
Here is the real secret of the Classic Chocolate Martini: it doesn't look like dessert. For all anyone knows, sitting near you at The Haute Lounge, you don't have a sweet tooth. You are sanctimoniously drinking a extra dry gin martini just like Nick or Nora Charles would. Be sure to eat that piece of chocolate quickly before anyone notices it's not an olive.
Here is the Painted Lady's Classic Chocolate Martini recipe: 4 oz. Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka (chilled) 2 oz. clear creme de cacao Chill a martini glass. Moisten the rim and place glass upside down on a superfine sugar and cocoa powder blend. Combine your ingredients (all two of them) into a chilled cocktail shaker, stir, and strain into the glass. Add a piece of chocolate.
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Nice!
I know! I wish it weren’t 10am and I wish I didn’t have to work today, LOL!
I don’t know about that, but I tell you High Cotton in Charleston, SC makes one VERY VERY VERY good expresso martini.
I’m sticking with scotch.
Worth a try ... but then, I like chocolate ice cream in a dark porter beer - try it sometime ....
Calling anything other than gin and vermouth (unless it’s gin poured while looking at a bottle of vermouth) a martini brings to mind Lincoln’s comment about calling a dog’s tail a leg.
(Oh, and the gin should taste like gin, not be one of those nominal “gins” that might as well be vodka.)
I’m with you - I can’t stand sweet drinks of any variety. Blecch. Scotch is a truly gift from Heaven. Alternatively, I enjoy a classic dry martini: Hendrick’s or Bombay gin, 5:1 with dry vermouth; a dash of Angostura bitters, two big fat Greek olives and maybe a thin twist of lemon peel. My trick is to keep the gin in the freezer so that it does not dilute when you mix it with the vermouth.
Dittos on the scotch.
It’s Friday....The weekend will provide opportunity....
What’s your take on Sapphire? IMO the best martini is made with Sapphire, with only the dry vermouth lucky enough to stick to the ice in the shaker. And 2 olives.
Of course the ultimate combination is Jim Beam Black neat with an ice-cold Shiner Bock chaser.
Gin is an aromatic, you get more flavor by cooling it, rather than chilling it in the freezer.
Let me speak up on behalf of the lowly Gibson. No, it is not a “gin martini with an onion”. It is a Gibson.
And I hate it when the bartender looks at you funny, and says, “You want an onion? In your drink?” One enthusiastic idiot went so far as to go to the kitchen and get a slice of white onion, which he put on the glass like a slice of lemon.
And it has to be distilled gin, not gin flavored vodka. I would actually like to taste the juniper berries in it, not overwhelmed with every spice used in western cooking. This means you, “blue-flavored” Bombay.
And don’t put an olive in a Gibson. Vodka goes with olives like Russians go with Turks, I suppose. Like Ivan Skavinsky Skavar goes with Abdul Abulbul Amir.
No accounting for taste. But a Gibson needs that pearl onion. And the Vermouth. And it needs to be shaken with ice. That is the way it is done.
Try vanilla ice cream with kahlua and Jamisons. Frozen Irish Coffee!
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