Few drinks have had quite the on-screen and off-screen career that the martini. Beloved by Bond, immortalised by Hemingway and scandalously dry in the hands of Churchill, it’s glamour in a glass. A drink that signals you know exactly what you’re doing… or at least want to look like you do.
It’s no wonder, then, that it has its own dedicated day. World Martini Day has been giving us an excuse to raise a glass every third Saturday in June since 2021. Whether you take yours shaken, stirred, wet, dry, dirty or outright filthy, tomorrow’s your chance to make it official.
If you need a little celebrity inspiration, you could do worse than take a leaf from Stanley Tucci’s very stylish bar trolley.
The Devil Wears Prada star once declared he’s “as famous for cooking as acting now”, with a clutch of bestselling cookbooks and an Instagram feed that at times reads more like a TikTok chef audition than a Hollywood A-lister’s grid. He’s already to blame for the lockdown Negroni shortage, and these days he’s arguably just as known for his cocktails as his carbonara.
So naturally, he’s now gunning for Bond’s crown as the world’s suavest martini man. Whether he makes one look more stylish than 007 is up for debate, but the voice, the tailoring and the freezer-batch trick certainly give him the edge.
Fittingly, to mark World Martini Day, he’s releasing a limited drop of pre-batched Tanqueray No.TEN freezer batch martini cocktails and has shared his ultimate freezer batch martini so you can channel your inner Tucci (or Bond) without so much as rattling a shaker.
“I wanted to make sure your readers had a perfect freezer batch martini recipe at their fingertips, so they also get to experience the indulgent citrus elegance of Tanqueray No.TEN from the comfort of their own homes.”
Stanley Tucci’s freezer martini
Serves: 7
Ingredients:
425ml Tanqueray No.TEN
100ml vermouth
175ml mineral water
Method:
1. Combine all ingredients in an empty 700ml Tanqueray No.TEN bottle or jug.
2. Store the bottle in the freezer for several hours, or overnight.
3. When ready to serve, pour 100ml into a chilled cocktail glass.
4. Garnish of your choice – try olives or a twist of fresh grapefruit peel
ABV: 30.9%, so perhaps don’t plan anything too ambitious afterwards
A short, chequered and very boozy history
The martini’s exact origin story is as slippery as an olive in a cold glass. Some say it was born in mid-19th-century California as the Martinez; others credit the Italian vermouth brand for lending its name to the version we know today. Early recipes leaned sweet – Old Tom gin, sugar, bitters – before the dry style we now revere emerged in the early 1900s. By the roaring Twenties, it was the drink of choice for anyone who fancied themselves a Gatsby.
Over the decades, the martini got progressively drier: Hemingway famously ordered his at a 15:1 gin-to-vermouth ratio, nicknamed the Montgomery, while Churchill supposedly made his by bowing towards France. Then, of course, came Bond, who preferred his shaken, not stirred, scandalising purists everywhere but ensured the drink’s pop culture immortality.
Why it’s having a moment again
If the martini briefly lost its cool – too stiff, too old-school, too synonymous with boozy boomer lunches – it’s made a serious comeback in the past few years. London bartenders report a surge in orders, from pitch-perfect classics at Dukes (where Fleming was inspired to have Bond order his “shaken, not stirred”) to all manner of playful riffs: mini martinis, savoury tomato versions, asparagus infusions, you name it. TikTok is awash with them, with more than 180,000 posts under #martini and counting, a reminder that minimalism done well never goes out of fashion.
And in a world where we’re all drinking a little less but better, the martini fits the bill. It’s not something to glug mindlessly and it rewards care and quality. A perfectly chilled martini, with decent gin, fresh vermouth and the right garnish is proof that you don’t need a 10-ingredient muddle to make a drink worth sipping slowly.
So whether you like yours classic, dirty or touched by Tucci, tomorrow’s your cue to join in. Keep it cold, keep it simple and remember: two is plenty.
