#182 Cocktail: Martini

   This cocktail doesn't need any introduction. I think there is no person that doesn't know about this cocktail. The most iconic cocktail of them all. When you think of Martini cocktail, you think of elegance , gentlemen in sharp suits, elegant ladies and some piano in the backround in a 1920's bar.
    The exact origin of the martini is unclear. Numerous cocktails with names and ingredients similar to the modern-day martini were first seen in bartending guides of the late 19th century. For example, in the 1888 Bartenders' Manual there was a recipe for a drink that consisted in part of half a wine glass of Old Tom Gin and a half a wine glass of vermouth.In 1863, an Italian vermouth maker started marketing their product under the brand name of Martini, and the brand name may be the source of the cocktail's name.
   There are a number of variations on the traditional Martini. The fictional spy James Bond sometimes asked for his vodka Martinis to be "shaken, not stirred," following Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which prescribes shaking for all its Martini recipes. The proper name for a shaken Martini is a Bradford. However, Somerset Maugham is often quoted as saying that "a Martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."

2 1/2 ounce Gin or Vodka

1/2 ounce dry vermouth