.. but I’m sure my fascination is there because it gets wrong 2 times of 3.

Why? How? It’s after all one of the most famous cocktails in the world. But it behaves like the MaiTai in the restaurant Casa Blanca in Quetzaltenango 1992;

-“What is in a MaiTai?”

-“A little bit of Mai and a little bit of Tai” was the answer.

And that is the story of the Dry Martini. Everybody has heard of it but few know him/her well.

1860? Or some years later? No one knows the exact origin but the birth doesn’t matter. Its the life that counts.

But I think it was this little restaurant in Montevideo, Uruguay, where it all started. 

The fascination of how the easy becomes the difficult.

 The waiter said it would take at least 20 minutes to prepare the steak so would it be possible that I would like to have a drink while waiting?

Ok – a dry martini then. He came out with a glass with ice and Martini Bianco.

Nononononononononononono! 

-“Bring out the bottles instead!”

He did so and i did my best to instruct him. He was happy ;

-“No I know a new drink!” 

But he came back after 2 minutes saying they were laughing at him when he said there was a new drink in town.

-“They say its what James Bond always drinks. And I told them that he was sitting on the terrace. So now they will not laugh at me anymore.”

But even if the cocktail is more than 150 years old – it has had its  development. The ratio of gin and vermouth was initially  50/50. That I would call “bläääääää“. But I would not recommend the Minja Peuschel ratio – that of pouring up gin and calling one’s aunt and ask her to hug a bottle of vermouth.

I go for 4 parts of gin and 1 part of vermouth.

Or as they do at Osteria restaurant on Lenana Road in Nairobi; 3 parts of gin and one part of Martini Bianco.

Another terrible mix. And to really improve it they added black olives…..

Up to today – it gets wrong 2 times of 3. Totally wrong.

A glass of vermouth. Or a glass of sweet vermouth. Or as in a bar in Sandton, South Africa. Vodka instead of gin.

How can a beloved friend be so unknown?