M artinis have been around since the 19th century, somehow managing to become more sophisticated as each decade passes. This year, it feels as if they’re more in vogue than ever, from the social media trend of three- martini lunches – which originated at American business lunches in the mid-20th century – to bars launching martini flights and reviving the martini trolley. It seems a classic has been reborn, not just online, but around Ireland too.
Made with just gin (or vodka, if you prefer) and vermouth, with a couple of olives or perhaps a twist of lemon, the martini cocktail is simple in theory but requires a keen hand to master. Its origins are debated, but it’s widely thought that it was born in the late 1800s in San Francisco as an evolution from the martinez cocktail – made with gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino, and bitters – which in turn descended from the Manhattan cocktail, which uses whiskey.
Ariel Sanecki is a man who knows his martinis. And as resort drinks director for the O’Donoghue Ring Collection, the Kerry group of hotels, bars and restaurants, he has mixed with the international masters.
“I met Peter Dorelli, a famous Italian bartender who worked at The Savoy in London for decades, at the World Cocktail Competition about 10 years ago and we talked lots about cocktails and how cocktail culture has changed,” says Sanecki.
“He told me that as cocktails spread through Europe, bartenders changed the recipes because they started to have better access to better ingredients and more tools. We can’t forget that when cocktails were made hundreds of years ago, alcohol was very bad. Now we have the best of the best, so you don’t really have to add anything else to a martini, and maybe that’s why they’re made the way they are now.”
Based across bars such as Pig’s Lane and Café du Parc in Killarney – the latter of which has just launched a new martini offering – Sanecki says martinis have been steadily popular, but mostly with American tourists visiting the area. Overall, he’s surprised to see how trendy the drink has become, but believes that part of this could be in its relative simplicity in calorie terms – it contains alcohol alone, with no sugary syrups or fizzy energy drinks involved.
“Over the last 20 years or so, we’ve seen people start to go out for a more considered drink, rather than things like lots of pints. So it makes sense that people on social media have started talking about three martinis, because it’s reflective of how we drink differently now,” says Anna Snook O’Carroll, co-founder of Valentia Island Vermouth, which has just launched in bars in the US.
“There’s a bar in Manhattan called Dante that sells 1,000 martinis a night. That amount of martinis would be bonkers for us in Ireland, but it shows the popularity. And when something becomes popular in New York, then it comes to London, then to us here in Ireland.
“We have such great producers here, which means we’re used to eating and drinking well, so it makes sense that the drinks scene in Ireland is thriving and that we’re drinking much better drinks, like well-made martinis.”
Valentia Island Vermouth’s sales have felt the benefit of the trend, says Snook O’Carroll, recalling that the uptick began during the pandemic when people got interested in upgrading their home bar with Irish products and making more cocktails. Within these parameters, the martini was seen, rightly or wrongly, as an easy drink to make.
As for how to make a perfect martini, we…