This cocktail was first known as a Kangaroo Cocktail when it was first introduced in the 1940s. Once Vodka became ubiquitous in our culture this was the preferred Martini. Many Vodka drinkers have since dialed down the Vermouth to larger and larger ratios doing all but omitting it from the recipe. I suspect the hatred of Vermouth has to do with people not refrigerating it as you’re supposed to.

You also can’t talk about the Vodka Martini without talking about whether to shake or stir your drink and although this is a very hot debate it wasn’t created by Ian Flemming and James Bond. This argument goes way back into the early days of the drink. I’m not going to go too deep into this issue in this video but I will absolutely say that shaking and stirring is largely preference. Shaking will give a ton of front-end dilution and in my humble opinion overdilute the drink also the aeration you get doesn’t do the Gin martini any justice. But this is exactly what some people are looking for: A Very cold, Very diluted drink.