
The dirty martini is one of the easiest cocktails to make, which is good because Alona asks me to make her one all the time. I do it as a standard martini of 2:1 gin and vermouth along with a few barspoons of olive brine. The best part about the dirty martini in my opinion is the garnish. Olives are a traditional garnish in regular martinis, but for the dirty martini I use a few blue cheese olives.
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The blue cheese olives garnish was something I first saw at Morton’s Steakhouse many years ago and it quickly became my favorite martini garnish. I find the strong flavor to greatly complement the cocktail, plus I just love a good blue cheese to begin with. For these blue cheese olives I use Papillon Roquefort, but you can use your preferred choice.
Now for the alcohols…the gin I chose for this is Tanqueray, which in my opinion is perfectly acceptable. It isn’t the greatest gin in the world, but it is far from bad and it works really well in cocktails. The vermouth, well, I just used a bottle of Martini Extra Dry. Yes yes, I know that Martini vermouth is not that great, especially with the recent resurgence of quality producers. HOWEVER, I do feel that it isn’t super sacrilege in this case because the olive brine overpowers the vermouth anyways. You really don’t need to use an expensive quality vermouth to make a good dirty martini.

How To Make A Classic Dirty Martini
Ingredients
- 75 ml Gin. I used Tanqueray but you can use your preferred London Dry gin of choice.
- 32.5 ml Dry White Vermouth. I used Martini since it is what I had on hand. I know it isn’t the greatest so you should always use a better one if you have it.
- 3 barspoons Olive Brine. Most recipes I see suggest just a few drops, or 1 barspoon of olive brine. This to me is a mistake, if you are making a dirty martini, make it dirty.
- 3 Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives. This garnish is optional of course, but highly recommended.
Add a couple ice cubes to a mixing glass and add all the ingredients (except the olives). Give a quick stir to combine and chill everything, then strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with three skewered blue cheese olives and enjoy.

Dirty Martini
Equipment
- mixing glass
Ingredients
- 75 ml Gin London Dry,
- 32.5 ml Vermouth Dry White.
- 3 barspoons Olive Brine
- 3 Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives for garnish, highly recommended
Instructions
- Add all ingredients sans olives to a mixing glass with a few ice cubes.
- Stir to chill and combine, then strain into a chilled martini glass.
- Garnish with 3 skewered blue cheese olives and enjoy.
Fantastic! Made with Uncle Val’s Gin!