How to Make Twists on a Classic

James Bond has attempted to convince us that the Martini is a vodka drink, but the word “Martini” exclusively referred to a mixture of gin and vermouth for the first half of its life. And while vodka Martinis can be charming all their own, the aromatic complexities of gin and vermouth lock into each other like a vacuum seal, and render the cocktail’s 130-year dominance immediately clear. We include the most straightforward variation below, but you can also see read two other riffs on the Martini.

Add ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir well for 10 seconds (if using small ice) to 25 seconds (if using very large ice), strain into a cocktail or Martini glass, and garnish with a lemon peel.

If the Martini is a tailored suit, then the Tuxedo No. 2 is, well, a tuxedo. It’s a dressed-up Martini—or perhaps dressed down, more on that in a moment—but in either case it’s a Martini with a bit of extra panache. It trades the Martini’s diamond-like clarity and simplicity for the resonant depth of maraschino and the punch of absinthe—a bold act, perhaps, but also one that earns the cocktail its name.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir for about 10 seconds (if using small ice) or up to 30 seconds (if using large ice), until cold. Strain into a stemmed cocktail glass, express the oils of a lemon peel over the top and garnish with the peel and, if desired, a cocktail cherry.

Though many people love a Vodka Martini, there’s a fundamental flaw in their construction compared to the gin version. That being that without the botanicals of gin, the vermouth has little to play with in the glass when paired up with just vodka. But there is a way to make it better. Meet the Poet’s Dream, a Vodka Martini with a subtle kiss of spiced sweetness from the French herbal liqueur Bénédictine. Fittingly, the original Poet’s Dream is a gin drink, from the 1931 Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett, but it’s the vodka version that really stands apart. It’s the smallest touch of Bénédictine—80 proof, honey-sweet, with cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus, and herbs—that brings the whole thing together, the cocktail dry and bracing, but charmed by the botanicals of the vermouth, which find a dancing partner in the spices of the liqueur. It’s a Vodka Martini without an identity crisis, one that doesn’t fight against its namesake, and that can embrace its full self.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice, and stir for 10 to 15 seconds (if you have small ice) or 25 to 30 seconds (if you have big ice). Strain off the ice into a cocktail glass or coupe, and garnish with a lemon peel.

Cocktails made with fat-washed spirits have been around for nearly 20 years now, with the pioneers at New York’s PDT creating a bourbon Old Fashioned infused with the flavor of real bacon. It only made sense for the fat-washing trend to come to other classics like the Martini as well, with olive oil being the fat used.

We’ve tried countless Olive Oil Martinis over the years and never really found one we’ve liked. That was until we tried one with fresh, high-quality olive oil. The oil you use is so vital that the infused spirit is not even worth making if you aren’t reaching for the good stuff. If you do have great olive oil, you will have an excellent drink.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice, and stir briskly for 10 to 20 seconds (longer for bigger ice, shorter for smaller). Strain into a Martini or coupe glass, and garnish with three high-quality olives and, if you feel like it, a few drops of olive oil.

While many people refer to the Alaska Cocktail a Martini variation, it could also be classified as a Gin Old Fashioned: It’s spirit, bitters, and a sweetener, except in this case, the sweetener is 80 proof. However, there’s no rich oak-aged whiskey to cushion the blow here—it’s the crystalline purity of gin, cold and clean like a mountain top, only softened and deepened by the inimitable honeyed complexity of the Chartreuse. The golden liqueur plays off the spirit like sun off snow, bringing some herbal warmth through the bracing chill. It’s a high-stakes game, but drink one, and the appeal of high stakes games start to make a little more sense.

Stir on ice for 20 to 30 seconds. Strain off ice into chilled coupe glass, and garnish with a lemon peel.

We know the Vesper comes from Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel, penned into modest fame by Ian Flemming in 1953 and shoved onto the global stage by Daniel Craig in 2006. We know both the proportions and the preparation, spelled out with unusual alacrity by Bond himself: “In a deep Champagne goblet… three measures of Gordon’s [gin], one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large, thin slice of lemon peel.” We also know it’s named for his alluring companion, Vesper Lynd.

This drink, as described by 007 himself, is ludicrous. It’s four ounces of high-octane booze and although it’s all booze, it’s shaken when the rules of cocktails deem it should be stirred. So we played with the proportions a little bit and held onto the shaking to help mitigate the booziness a bit.

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Add ice, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, strain up into a large martini or cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

This variation on the Martini, named for a stage production that came out in 1941, highlights the incredible versatility of gin. The Arsenic and Old Lace is what would happen if you took the resonant clarity of a Martini, and gave it, as we write, “a floral punch from creme de violette and a piquant zing of absinthe.” These two accent marks—a quarter and an eighth of an ounce, respectively—utterly change the character of the drink.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir well for 10 seconds (if using small ice) to 25 seconds (if using very large ice), strain into a cocktail glass or coupe, and garnish with a lemon peel.

See Also

How to Make a Bourbon and Strawberry Sour

Properly constructed, a Martinez is plush with Italian vermouth but still prickly with gin, enjoying the diamond-clarity of a Martini but with the silken luxuriousness of a Manhattan. More than the Martini or the Manhattan, the Martinez evokes that Gilded Age, an echo of a long past era reflected in the quantity of vermouth and the unusual character of maraschino. I always find myself craving one around Springtime, when it’s somehow both warm and cold simultaneously and you have no idea how to dress yourself, and when the in-between things feel just right.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir for 15 to 20 seconds. Strain up into a coupe or cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

Faced with the request to make a Martini that was simultaneously very cold and bracingly strong, legendary bartender Salvatore Calabrese was in a bind. To get it colder you have to stir it on ice longer, but this melts more ice and makes it less “dry.” He tried to navigate this for several days, before solving his puzzle with a bit of unconventional thinking—what if you kept the gin and the glassware in the freezer and just poured it straight like that, and kept the ice out of it entirely?

In that moment, Calabrese planted the seed that would become the Freezer Martini. His version, now called the Duke’s Martini, is still served there to this day, and is so strong it could resurrect the dead—the Duke’s Martini is something like a five-ounce measure (that’s a fifth of a bottle) of undiluted gin, poured straight from the freezer with just a whisper of vermouth, and even its many passionate defenders would probably admit it’s a little insane. But the Freezer Martini technique can and has been adapted to more standard specifications, and to absolutely wonderful results. You pre-batch with gin and vermouth, pre-dilute with a specified amount of water, and put it in the freezer to chill. In a few hours, you have an entire bottle of Martinis, perfectly balanced to your taste, and ready to go at a moment’s notice. With this, you are never more than 15 seconds from a perfect Martini in your hand. Dangerous? Perhaps. Revolutionary? Also, yes.

Measurements to fill one, standard sized, 750ml bottle.

Carefully add all ingredients to an empty 750ml bottle. Seal the bottle, and invert five to 10 times to ensure ingredients are fully mixed. Put the bottle in the freezer and wait several hours to fully chill. When ready to serve, pour three ounces into a chilled glass, and express the oils from a lemon peel over the top of it.

Every year, the U.K.-based Difford’s Guide publishes a list of what they call the World’s Top 100 Cocktails. It’s not an opinion piece, or an editorial endorsement—when they say “top” they mean by popularity, the list is ranked by web traffic, and is therefore objective and purely democratic. And what was No. 1 for 2025? The eternal Margarita, or the hip Negroni, or the trendy Carajillo? Nope. It’s the Pornstar Martini, crowned in the top spot for an incredible eighth year in a row. Now, the name may sound salacious, but it’s actually an outstanding drink. Invented by bartender Douglas Ankrah at Townhouse in London, it’s made from vodka, vanilla, and passion fruit. In the video above O’Bryan takes this 20-year-old recipe and updates it with more modern techniques so the Pornstar Martini is even easier for home bartenders to make.

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake hard for eight to 10 seconds. Strain into a martini glass, and garnish with a lime wheel, a lime peel, or, if you’re feeling rich, a half passion fruit bobbing in the top of the drink. Serve alongside a sidecar of Champagne or other sparkling wine, if you wish.