Martini trends in 2017

Do you like your martini to be shaken or stirred? Well, its time to up your martini game and experiment with flavours, say experts.

Rohan Jelkie, Brand Ambassador at Moët Hennessy, India, and Sonu Negi, Chef, The Ancient Barbeque, have listed some key martini trends of 2017 that have been observed:

* Premiumisation: There was a time when a martini would be made using a pouring brand of vodka or gin. This means, it could be any vodka or gin going into your drink. However, times have changed. Consumers are very specific about the brand of vodka or gin they want used in their martini and, bartenders ensure to check with their patrons for their preferred brand.

* Expanding the 'vermouth' game: Most bars in India are limited to using either of the two brands of vermouth available in India - Martini or Cinzano. But now, bars are scaling up their game by using other (and more reputed) styles of aromatised wines like Lillet Blanc or Noilly Prat. These are just two of the many that are available to bars across the world.

* Understanding the dry vs the wet: Most consumers and sadly even bartenders in India don't know the difference between a dry martini and a wet martini. A dry martini is one that uses minimal amount of vermouth in the drink along with vodka or gin as opposed to a wet martini which uses a slightly higher proportion of vermouth.

* Looking beyond an olive or three: The earliest form of the drink when it appeared in the late 1800s used orange bitters in the mix. Today, bars are experimenting with variations of the martini flavours and are aromatised with different bitters like peach bitters, cherry bitters or lavender bitters. Also, the garnish has progressed from using olives or lemon peel to using the peel of grapefruit or local Indian lemons like the Gondhoraj or Kaji.

* Go ninetees: Try your mocktails and cocktails with different flavours like kala khatta, cola, orange, mango which we found in candies.

* Balance your drink: Keep the volume for alcohol balanced so that the flavours of the other ingredients also show their presence.

--IANS

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