Empress martini

My Friday evening cocktail last week was this lovely Empress martini. Empress 1908 gin is a lovely, lightly botanical gin with a distinctive purple color from butterfly pea blossoms. It’s my favorite gin for a martini.

I prefer a really basic, traditional martini – 2 parts gin to 1 prt vermouth. I like vermouth. I like the combnation of gin and vermouth. If you’re mixing 5:1, you might as well just have a glass of gin and be done with it. In addition to the Empress 1908 gin, this martini is made with Dolin dry white vermouth. I also like a couple of olives in my martini, but went with the strip of lemon because it makes a pretty color contrast.