Vesper Martini

Gin is a distilled alcohol drink made from Juniper Berries and is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the world.

It’s popularity is growing year on year, with sales in the UK rising beyond £3 billion per year.

For Gin, we recommend:

We compared 12 different brands of Vodka and determined that Smirnoff was the overall best option. Given the current climate with Russia, that may seem like a questionable choice, but Smirnoff isn’t made in Russia, it’s made all over the world.

It actually has a history of Russian persecution and the creators were forced to flee Russia.

 

Lillet Blanc is classed as an aromatic wine.

It’s a blend of 85% of the Semillon Bordeaux region wine and 15% macerated liqueurs, mostly citrus liqueurs using the peels of sweet Spanish/Moroccan oranges and the peels from green Haitian oranges.

The mix is then stirred in oak vats until it’s properly blended.

What does Lillet Blanc taste like?

With the blended wine, macerated liqueurs, Lillet Blanc has a pleasantly fruity, yet not overly sweet, taste.

What does Lillet Blanc add to a Martini?

Lillet Blanc adds fruity context to the harsher Vodka and Gin ingredients. But that doesn’t mean it’s not boozy: far from it, after all Lillet Blanc is a blended wine.

What can I use instead of Lillet Blanc?

If you can’t pick up Lillet Blanc, then you should use a dry White Vermouth.

What’s the difference between Lillet Blanc and White Vermouth?

Lillet Blanc is a more delicate drink than White Vermouth, especially if you drink it straight like the French often do.

Whilst both drinks are types of wine, Lillet Blanc ahas more fruity overtones and isn’t nearly as dry as most brands of White Vermouth tend to be.

Cocktail shakers improve the taste of cocktails. It’s a fact.

There’s a reason that famed British spy James Bonds says “shaken, not stirred”. And that reason is: because it tastes better.

If you don’t already have a cocktail shaker set, you might want to check out our detailed Cocktail Shaker comparison article.

But to cut a long story short, here’s the cocktail shaker we recommend:

If you (or perhaps the person your buying for) don’t have a Hawthorne strainer as part of a cocktail shaker set, it’s a great, and incredibly useful, cocktail gift you need in your cocktail toolbox.

The strainer is typically used to remove the ice (or any other unwanted solid ingredients) from your cocktail as it’s poured from the cocktail shaker into your glass.

For a Hawthorne Strainer, we recommend:

It’s important to get the mix of any cocktail right. The measurements are set for a reason – to specify a tried, tested, and tasty drink.

A jigger is going to help you get those perfect measurements – after all, it is what the pro’s use.

For a jigger, we recommend:

This cocktail recipe tastes great, but let’s make it look great too.

Having the right glass for the right cocktail always makes the experience more enjoyable in my experience.

And the right glass is a cocktail glass.

We recommend: