Happy midsummer Friday! We’re right in the thick of the summer, which means summer blockbuster movies are now coming out. One of the bigger ones this season, Oppenheimer, happens to have a cocktail tie in! Although by tie in I mean there are a couple scenes with Robert Oppenheimer drinking some. However this has inspired multiple outlets to write about, and re-create his signature martini, and who am I to ignore this journalistic trend?
The only thing I can see that is concrete is the amount of gin. Oppenheimer used FOUR ounces. That’s right. FOUR. Pardon the pun, but this thing is nuclear! As for the other ingredients, everyone agrees there was dry vermouth, and a lemon and honey rim. The proportions are less than exact. In terms of the vermouth, I’ve sees such scientific measurements as a “smidge” so I decided to wing it on the vermouth. As to the lime and honey, I squeezed half a lime and mixed in a quarter teaspoon of honey. It didn’t really mix very well at room temperature so I broke it up and incorporated it into the juice as best as I could. There probably is a better methodology to combine them to a point where the rim is at it’s best. As to the proportions themselves? There’s a lot of wiggle room on that so mix those to your hearts content.
Oppenheimer Martini
4 oz. Dry gin
1 barspoon Dry vermouth
Half lime
.25 tsp Honey
Put glassware in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to chill. Squeeze lime onto a small dish and mix in the honey. Add gin and ice to a shaker. Shake until extremely cold. Dip the cocktail glass into the lime and honey to rim the glass. Strain the gin into the glass and serve. No garnish
The nose isn’t as gin forward as expected. I get a lot of the honey and lime rim. To be honest, I expected more of a juniper forward gin smell going on here but I’m surprised. Quite pleasantly so if I may add.
The flavor is gin, gin, oh, and more gin. To be expected for a full four ounces of the stuff. The sour/sweet rim helps offset the roughness of the gin a bit. Which is nice. Also, not something I’ve really ever tried as a combination in a drink. I liked the sour/sweet touch it gave each sip, though I did find I had to rotate the glass every now and then to get a fresh taste of the rim. Aside from the rim, I must say this is a very traditional (if not overpowered) martini. I’m glad I decided to chill the glass ahead of time, because the colder you can drink this, the better it is. Especially if you’re conducting some sort of secret tests out in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Anyway, the rest of the sip continues on the gin theme, but I can pick up a little bit of the barspoon of dry vermouth. Those flavors ride out the rest of the sip together, with a little bit of gin and vermouth on the palate afterwards.
I was a little apprehensive going into this one not gonna lie. Mainly because for some reason I’m not a martini person (though I think I like them more than I thought I did) as well as the ridiculous proportions of the drink. Although, this wouldn’t be the first insane drink from the war I’ve had…
Would I make this again? I’m somewhat torn. I do like this, especially the honey lime rim. But four ounces of gin essentially cooled down can be a bit much to handle. Definitely save this one for when you have nowhere else to go for the evening, as you’ll be needing to stay put a while. But for now, I’ll raise this glass and close with Oppenheimer’s go to toast: “To the confusion of our enemies.”
(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)
I guess when you invent a weapon that kills 140,00 people at a go 4 oz. of gin seems like pretty small potatoes.
You wuss.
–Tony LaRussa responding to every story at a court ordered AA meeting.
I’m in. All about that ginny gin gin.
“Oh hell yeah. Me too!”
“But somebody else is picking up the tab, right?”
I sent this one to Senorita Weaselo, who in her college days loved dry martinis. Her response: “Past [Senorita] would be JUMPING”
4 ounces??? Damn. You must be able to really hold your booze, Sharky. After that much gin, I would be trailing off into incoherence. The end of my poast would probably look something like this:
I think that’s why I forgot to add the shake part, and confused lemon and lime
Isn’t that what Durwood Stevens drank on Bewitched, except by the pitcher?
I assume this was a typo but this actually sounds more palatable than the lime.
It was. I thought I typed it wrong in there but couldn’t find it proofing it late last night.
I tended to go with a dash of bitters and twist of lemon peel for a strong gin martini. Might be interesting (although nawt historically accurate) to coat the rim in honey then use RealLime powder like margarita salt which will stick to the honey
I think that’ll be the best move. The rim was hard to pick up the more I drank it.
“use RealLime powder like margarita salt”
Ooo. Now there’s a pro-tip. Thanks Doc!
I like a plain seltzer with a packet of the RealLime (or lemon) on a flight. Nice and dry.
Would think that it would make a great rim ingredient.
I never would have thought to mix honey and gin. Seems a tad oil/water-ish??
And good on you for not liking martinis. The drink is just a flat, poorly-prepared gin and tonic. Olive instead of a lime wedge? NINJA, PLEASE.
I don’t like olives. I think that’s why I shyed away from them for so long.
The olives are the best part of a martini.
shake or stir?
/ducks out to avoid the new cookie war
Shake. Apparently that was his go to.
fucking Flemmingists
Hmmm. Maybe a “chicken or the egg” kind of situation. Casino Royale wasn’t released until ’53. Did Oppenheimer influence Ian?
tries to make a (bad) Bond joke and gets smacked down by facts and history.
/love it
Sorry.
“The great tragedy of
sciencepoasting – the slaying of an original, beautifulhypothesisjoke by an ugly fact”Bloom County rocked.