Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds

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)