Dirty Martini Recipe

Shaken or stirred? Whichever way you like your dirty martini, you’ll be treated to a bold cocktail, it’s strong, salty, and briny, with alluring cloudiness and garnished with olives, this is a cocktail that doesn’t mess around. Become a home bartender, cut costs and learn how to make this easy 5 minute cocktail recipe.

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Why you’ll love this easy cocktail recipe

• With 3 ingredients and 5 minutes to make, what’s not to love?
• A dirty martini is a great cocktail to make for Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and parties.
• No more paying bar prices, you can recreate this in your own home for a fraction of the cost.
• It’s an olive lover’s dream and a classic cocktail.

Dirty martinis have a reputation, they are the cocktail that divides people, either you love them or hate them. But you’ve got to try one – right?

Go into any bar and you’ll see a whole array of different martinis on their menu.

You can choose from a passion fruit martini, espresso martini, French martini, and many more.

But they are expensive, REALLY expensive, so we set out to recreate them, so you can save money and make them at home.

What ingredients do I need?

You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below to make your dirty martini.

How to make a dirty martini with step-by-step instructions

Making our dirty martini recipe is easy if you follow our simple instructions.

In a cocktail mixing glass filled with ice, add gin or vodka, vermouth, and green olive brine (or olive juice).

Either shake or stir your ingredients to combine and chill them.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with and garnish with green olives.

Serve immediately, enjoy, and cheers!

We hope you enjoy making and drinking our dirty martini recipe and would love to hear how you got on with making it.

Please leave a comment below and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

What is a dirty martini?

A dirty martini is a cocktail made from just 3 ingredients, gin or vodka, dry vermouth, and olive brine – that’s it.

So, what makes a vodka martini dirty?

It’s the olive brine or olive juice, that you put into the cocktail.

How dirty you have it, is up to you.

This simply means if you like it really ‘dirty’ you put more olive brine in the drink to make it cloudy.

It’s one of those classic cocktails, that’s right up there with the dry martini.

What is vermouth?

Vermouth is a fortified wine that has been flavored with botanicals.

There are two main types of vermouth, simply sweet vermouth, and dry vermouth.

But these days you can also buy sweet blanc or Bianco, extra dry white, red, amber, and rose.

Make it cold – ice cold

A dirty martini is best served cold.

If possible, chill your cocktail glass so that it’s nice and cold before mixing your drink.

Make sure you fill your mixing glass with ice cubes.

Stir for long enough.

Remember the ingredients don’t go in cold, and you don’t add ice to your cocktail glass.

What glass should I use?

Unsurprisingly, a classic martini glass is an ideal glass to use when making a dirty martini.

But a coupe glass would also work well.

Is it the martini that James Bond drinks?

The iconic Bond line ‘I’ll have mine shaken, not stirred’ is about a vodka martini.

So yes, it is a James Bond cocktail.

But if you’ve read any of the books and watched Casino Royale, the Vesper Martini is the cocktail that he drinks.

Let’s talk olives

We’ve used green olives for our dirty martini.

But if you want to try another type, then go for blue cheese stuffed olives.

Spanish pimento olives are also great to use.

Stuffed olives will add flavor to the brine.

What equipment will I need to make it?

To make a dry martini recipe, you’ll need the following bartender equipment.

A mixing glass or cocktail shaker.

A jigger (measure).

Cocktail stirrer or bar spoon.

A cocktail glass.

Recipe notes and expert tips

• Make it cold
  Chill your martini glass before you use it.
• Quality
  With few ingredients, make sure you use the best quality gin or vodka that you can afford.
• Don’t have a mixing glass or cocktail shaker?
  Use a mason jar instead, this is a great workaround.
• No green olives?
  Use cocktail onions instead.

More easy martini recipes for you to try

If you like our dirty martini recipe, then you should check our other martini recipes out!

• Pornstar martini
• Lemon drop martini
• Strawberry martini
• Espresso martini
• Passion fruit martini

Follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, for more tasty inspiration!

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