If not the next day as well!
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Polishing off the bottle of Hendrick’s, 3:1 with Dolin Dry and a large Mezzetta olive. It is growing on me, but next time I have a martini, it will be nice to get back to Tanq, regular.
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No matter how hard I try to recall, the one night I know I consumed more martinis than any other time, I have no recollection of the number. I do know once we passed 4, we stopped counting. That was around 9pm. Started at 6. I recall at one stop we made that evening the waitress was bringing trays of them to our table. My wife told me I got home after 5am. Extrapolating based on time, it could have been 10, 12, 15. Who knows? Not I. One of the best nights of my life. At least from what I can remember.
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Never been there with martinis, but when I was GC of an NYSE bank, our outside counsel decided to fete me to a search for the perfect margarita party. It got pretty insane. I was looking away, and the woman beside me accidentally poured a body temperature cup of chili con queso down my cuff. I did not notice. As the evening wore on our waiter, Damian, got up on the table to do Heartbreak Hotel. He earned his $500 tip. Crazy times, swilling margaritas straight from the jug. I don’t even like margaritas. Why couldn’t we have searched for the perfect martini? Thankfully, post savings and loan debacle, the laws were changed to make such things off limits. I always felt beholden to reciprocate when treated to anything. That wretched night cost me weeks of cheeseburgers. It was just their way of getting their senior partners to pay for them to get stupid drunk.
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Tanq lives in my freezer. My snobby gin friends make fun of me. I don’t care.
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There is nothing better than a London dry gin, the epitome of gin.
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I’d rather not recount some of my own excesses… 
Anyway, all this talk has led me to make myself 2 martinis at home yesterday, trying out my new vermouth: Ulrich extra dry. And then with my fave Tanq no 10. Bliss!!
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Try a lemon twist or a pickled okra.
For some time we have stuck to red to red cap/white label Bombay and Dolin dry, 3:1, stirred forty-seven turns in a frozen pitcher, strained into a frozen Nick and Nora, and garnished with an olive packed in vermouth, not brine. Photographed without artful arrangement. Dinner will be pork chops Marsala and haricot vert tossed in butter.
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What happens if you miscount and stir it only 46 or >gasp< 48 times? 
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My brother was a math major. To math geeks, 11 is very special. So are 29 and 47, each a prime number, the sum of their digits being…11. So if I shake, it is 38, the average of 29 and 47. If I stir, it is 47. Actually, I found those numbers really optimize the chill and melt water. I have gone over both targets to no ill effect. Now over serving the olives might be bad, I am flexible with gin to vermouth ratios to a degree, but 3:1 is my sweet spot. How about you, O noble lover of martinis? Do you have a “go to” recipe?
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My man is the mixer in the house. We both prefer a ratio of 4 or 5:1. I seriously doubt he counts the stirs, however. Stirred in the shaker a secret amount of times ;-), poured into frosty, beautiful glasses we brought back from Berlin last year
The gin depends on what’s in the house, which is usually not more than one kind (Bluecoat standard, Hendricks on occasion, Drumshanbo as well).
We currently have Tribuno as our vermouth. Damn, now I almost want one but today we’re abstaining in preparation for weekend festivities.
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Do they make fun of you because it is Tanqueray or because it is in the freezer?
Because it’s Tanqueray. Freezer is a good place to stash gin, vodka, and limoncello.
Your snobby gin friends don’t know what they’re talking about, then. Nothing wrong with Tanq. They should have given you guff because there is no need to store gin in the freezer. Or vodka for that matter, unless you’re sipping it neat.
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I like stuff pre chilled.
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Tanq is really good. There, I’ve said it!
Last year I took the train from London St Pancras to where I live in the Netherlands - a 3 hour ride. While waiting I went to a shop seeing if I could get a few beers for in the train. Beers were I think around 5 euro a bottle. My eye fell on a bottle of Tanq as it was only 13 euro something. So naturally I bought the bottle of Tanq, a can of cold seltzer, and enjoyed a few ones on the train. When I got home I still had 3/4 of the bottle left. It pays to be cost conscious!
The standard Tanq is good, just a good benchmark for how gin should be. The No10 is a good benchmark for martinis (and is kept in my freezer). And then I also buy the flavoured Indian lime (rangpur?) occasionally.
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This response warms my heart. Here’s to The Elevens. You go!
It reminds me of my dear departed uncle who habitually chewed every bite of his food 99 times before swallowing. He fell just short of reaching 99 himself, but the habit coincided with a lifetime of good health–even if it summed to 18.
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There are so many gins out there, but the classic London dry gins like Tanq, original Bombay, Beefeater, Broker’s, and Boodles are superb. If you like a classic gin, they are hard to beat.
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In my experience, the key to a great martini is the liquor in question has to be pulled from the freezer and should be at or below 32F, limiting the amount of dilution when stirred. Glassware and other paraphernalia should also be frozen or chilled. In a bar environment, where you might have to rinse with hot water between mixes, use the japanese cold shake and filter off any melt before adding anything, chill glass with ice.
This style of martini works great with vodka in a dry ratio (maybe 1:8) and an olive.
When I order a gin martini, I order with a twist. A fancy place I might ask for a yuzu twist, check if there’s a fresh yuzu lying about. Then you have to pick a gin that works with yuzu, like Nikka, then work back to the vermouth choice (you do call your vermouths, right? a cocktail specific bar will typically have 3 or 4 white vermouths)
I probably alternate between the two, gin has been more common last decade.
Honestly, I’ve been ordering more Vespers, and more “chilled vodka with olive”. A chilled vodka is a lot simpler to order than a very very dry martini ice cold, and these days the shot price is usually lower than the cocktail price. I also usually tip only a buck for shots and 3 bucks for cocktails. This for the kind of place that serves in plastic cups and has only one vermouth.
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