Oxley is a terribly expensive gin made with a traditional mix of uber quality varietals. Their particular spin is to do everything very, very cold. The gin tastes like a London dry, only cleaner, subtler and much better. If you didn't know better, you'd say it belongs in Plato's cave rather than your liquor cabinet.
We drove up the coast last February to partake in one of the many pre-graduation, graduation, and post-graduation rituals associated with my son Max's (wait for it) graduation, his dissertation defense, and stayed at the Dream Inn there. Their bar was an early adopter, and I tried Oxley on their recommendation. Now that a few months have passed, Oxley is no longer so difficult to find, but you still may have to expend a little effort to find it. Worth the search and the price, because Oxley makes the perfect, dry martini.
Ingredients:
Cocktail Shaker, not too small
Martini Glass, large, stemmed, elegant and preferably de luxe
Ice cubes, lots
2 oz, more or less of Martini and Rossi, Noilly Prat, or Cinzano Dry Vermouth, at any rate nothing cheap
3-4 oz Oxley
2 Cocktail olives, large size and best quality, stuffed with pimento, jalapeno, onion, blue cheese, or...?.
Fancy shmancy cocktail pick.
Cocktail strainer, if your shaker doesn't have one built in.
Technique:
Have everything ready from jump street, so you can work with rhythm.
Fill the shaker and martini glass generously with ice cubes.
Add the gin to the shaker and the vermouth to the martini glass.
Prepare the olives by putting them on the pick, set aside.
The time allowed up to this point allowed the glass to chill and the vermouth to work its magic. Swish the vermouth in the glass, when the glass is well chilled and scented discard the vermouth and ice.
Put the pick with the olives in the glass.
While the ice and gin linger unshaken in the shaker, the slow melting ice dilutes the gin. The longer the wait, the more dilution. Depending for whom you're shaking the cocktail, more dilution can be a good thing or not. Use your judgment. Cover the shaker, and shake the gin vigorously. When the shaker is so cold it actually hurts to hold it -- not a moment before -- strain the gin into the glass.
The glass will be frosted, the cocktail cloudy but clearing with a thin film of ice floating on top. The mouth-feel will be rich and cold, the taste clean with a hint of juniper.
Don't let it sit in the glass and get warm, it won't taste good. If you can't drink that large a cocktail reasonably quickly, make singles by halving the amount of gin and keeping all other measurements and instructions the same.
Perfrikkinfection.
BDL
PS. Original recipe, for and from my blog. Please don't reprint or re-post without permission. Blah blah blah.
Edited by boar_d_laze - 9/29/11 at 4:16pm
We drove up the coast last February to partake in one of the many pre-graduation, graduation, and post-graduation rituals associated with my son Max's (wait for it) graduation, his dissertation defense, and stayed at the Dream Inn there. Their bar was an early adopter, and I tried Oxley on their recommendation. Now that a few months have passed, Oxley is no longer so difficult to find, but you still may have to expend a little effort to find it. Worth the search and the price, because Oxley makes the perfect, dry martini.
THE PERFECT GIN DOUBLE MARTINI
Ingredients:
Cocktail Shaker, not too small
Martini Glass, large, stemmed, elegant and preferably de luxe
Ice cubes, lots
2 oz, more or less of Martini and Rossi, Noilly Prat, or Cinzano Dry Vermouth, at any rate nothing cheap
3-4 oz Oxley
2 Cocktail olives, large size and best quality, stuffed with pimento, jalapeno, onion, blue cheese, or...?.
Fancy shmancy cocktail pick.
Cocktail strainer, if your shaker doesn't have one built in.
Technique:
Have everything ready from jump street, so you can work with rhythm.
Fill the shaker and martini glass generously with ice cubes.
Add the gin to the shaker and the vermouth to the martini glass.
Prepare the olives by putting them on the pick, set aside.
The time allowed up to this point allowed the glass to chill and the vermouth to work its magic. Swish the vermouth in the glass, when the glass is well chilled and scented discard the vermouth and ice.
Put the pick with the olives in the glass.
While the ice and gin linger unshaken in the shaker, the slow melting ice dilutes the gin. The longer the wait, the more dilution. Depending for whom you're shaking the cocktail, more dilution can be a good thing or not. Use your judgment. Cover the shaker, and shake the gin vigorously. When the shaker is so cold it actually hurts to hold it -- not a moment before -- strain the gin into the glass.
The glass will be frosted, the cocktail cloudy but clearing with a thin film of ice floating on top. The mouth-feel will be rich and cold, the taste clean with a hint of juniper.
Don't let it sit in the glass and get warm, it won't taste good. If you can't drink that large a cocktail reasonably quickly, make singles by halving the amount of gin and keeping all other measurements and instructions the same.
Perfrikkinfection.
BDL
PS. Original recipe, for and from my blog. Please don't reprint or re-post without permission. Blah blah blah.
Edited by boar_d_laze - 9/29/11 at 4:16pm
