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THE THISPY TAILENDER

A swig of power!

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

The veteran and the new-born A classic Martini (right) vies with an improvised version by Manjeet Singh, the bartender at The Claridges hotel’s vodka bar Aura

So it is the weekend yet again. And time to let your hair down! Some would put on their dancing shoes, some would lose it to a book or to a pack of pals, and a bunch of lazy logs would surely sleep till it’s Monday all over again. Let the dead beats hold on to their pillows, and you naughty ones, get set to say cheers! Time to toast Martini, one of the world’s classic drinks. Well, tippler or not, if you keep an interest in spy stories and modern-day war heroes, real or make-believe, you are sure to have come across Martini.

Perhaps it is the only cocktail that has reams of lore about it. All of it rings around a machismo difficult to resist, an aura over which only the conquerors have a patent. So, real or fictional, most modern-day heroes have clanked a glass of Martini, though all had their individual tastes. While Bond (James) famously liked it shaken not stirred, Churchill (Winston) and Hitchcock (Alfred) loved it without adding vermouth to the gin. Both seemed to have preferred holding a cold glass of gin and looking at the bottle of vermouth. Some refused to call this a Martini at all — as if Churchill would care! Then there was Hemingway (Ernest), who liked a version named after British Field Marshal Montgomery. The World War II veteran liked a Martini concoction with loads of gin and a sprinkle of vermouth before going to the front.

Well, rummaging through history will yield many other stories about the drink and throw up more variants of the classic version — made with three parts gin, one part dry or sweet vermouth and topped with a traditional garnish like olives or a lemon peel. Keeping the yarns for some other day, here I am moving on to the next step. That of approaching a bartender to help stir up the described drink.

For the ritual, I meet Manjeet Singh, the bartender at The Claridges hotel’s vodka bar Aura. He beats up a classic version on request but is all perked up when asked to do an improvised version of Martini with vodka, Aura’s USP and a commonly used base now instead of gin.

Manjeet soon whips up a ‘kiwi Martini’. I will tell you how: In a cocktail shaker, he adds 60-ml each of vodka and fresh apple juice and a slice of kiwi fruit. He hard-shakes it then empties a sachet of castor sugar into it, plus some fresh lemon juice. One more shake, before emptying the concoction into a Martini glass. A kiwi slice is popped on the rim as a garnish.

To talk of the taste, if the classic version is overtly alcoholic, the kiwi one is an undercover agent. Aura charges Rs.450 for the classic one and Rs.500 for the kiwi version before taxes. In case you are not impressed, he has a paan supari Martini too! It is made by infusing paan leaves in a vodka concoction.

(The author is learning a thing or two about cocktails and mocktails taking the reader along.)

sangeetab@thehindu.co.in

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