Dirty Vodka Martini
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Traditional dirty vodka martini. Shaken and served up with stuffed green olives. The dirty martini has to be one of the best cocktails ever, and this recipe will help you make the perfect one, every single time.
A dirty vodka martini helped me realize one thing. Turns out I must officially be a grown-up … because I always thought you had to be one to enjoy drinks like Dirty Vodka Martinis.
Remember the old shows like I Love Lucy and Bewitched? How Ricky and Darren would come home to a fresh martini cocktail at the end of the day?
It just seemed so grown-up and sophisticated!
For me, it was sort of the same thing as blue cheese. It was never my favorite, then all of the sudden, like overnight, I loved it. A dirty martini with hand-stuffed bleu cheese olives — that’s when a martini is truly perfect in my world.
My Favorite Dirty Martini
I have always loved olives, of any kind, and the idea of a dirty martini just sounded good. It wasn’t until I had a good one that I was hooked.
A great dirty martini relies on the quality of its very simple ingredients. Your olives, the vodka, and the vermouth. If you shop quality in these departments, then you already have gone more than halfway to a perfect dirty martini.
Great Vodka For Dirty Martinis
It helps to know a bit about your vodka if you want to make a great martini of any sort. We can get into gin martinis another time because that is a whole other topic. But, for vodka martinis, just like gin, the quality of the alcohol makes a big difference.
This is a cocktail where you are meant to taste the alcohol, not bury it. Use cheap booze in some sort of sugary and syrupy mixer meant to hide it. For cocktails like dirty martinis, you want to taste the spirit, not conceal it.
These days, there are so many varieties of vodka to choose from. There are great domestic vodkas and of course, the ever popular Russian, Polish, Swedish and French vodkas.
Let’s just say it isn’t hard finding a good vodka. The hard part is picking one among so many!
Vodkas I Like For Dirty Martinis
The quality of vodka is defined in a few ways. First, the amount of “Heat” it has is important. A good, clean vodka doesn’t feel like it is burning your tongue. A good, clean taste that is smooth and doesn’t burn your tongue is preferable.
Next, the type of water and the type of grain, vegetable, or even fruit make a difference. The best vodkas are made from sa pecific wheat grain. However, there are perfectly good vodkas made from potatoes, grapes, and even beets.
Here are some I can personally recommend:
- Grey Goose – French vodka
- Stoli – Often ranked as the best Russian vodka
- Square One – a great domestic vodka
Types Of Olives For Dirty Vodka Martinis
I use the bigger Spanish Queen pimento-stuffed olives. The smaller manzanilla olives are a good standby if you can’t find the big Spanish ones. If you are feeling extra daring and want to really dirty things up, remove that pimento, and hand-stuff some bleu cheese into those Spanish olives!
Give an extra little splash of the olive juice to the top of your martini if you like it extra “dirty”.
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I always chill my glasses before I make them. Fill them with ice and cold water, and let them sit while you gather the rest of the ingredients.
For me, it’s Grey Goose Vodka, some vermouth, olives and olive juice, plus a martini shaker with ice. I love it when you shake them just right, and there are little ice chips in the glass!
Other Martini Recipes We Love:
- Citrus Basil Martini
- Dreamsicle Martini
- French Martini
- Pink Pussycat Martini
- Sakitini Martini
- Espresso Martini
- Bikini Martini
- Rosemary Infused Cranberry Bourbon Martini
- Grapefruit Martini
Shop my favorite barware in my Amazon Storefront!
My Dirty Martini Recipe
We have been making them at home for a while now, and this is the dirty martini recipe we rely on.
Cheers to you and your equally sophisticated taste in martinis! Enjoy!
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Dirty Vodka Martini
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 ounces of good quality Vodka we use Grey Goose
- 1/2 ounce dry Vermouth
- 1 ounce green olive juice (brine)
- 2-3 large stuffed green olives
- ice
Instructions
- Add ice cubes and cold water to a martini glass to chill glass.
- Add vodka, vermouth and olive juice into a martini shaker, add ice and shake to chill.
- Drain water from martini glass and strain martini from shaker into the glass.
- Add olives and serve.
- Also fabulous with bleu cheese stuffed olives!
Notes
Nutrition
I love a good cocktail, I actually was introduced to a dirty martini without vermouth and lots of olives and their juice. It’s so delicious, I am hooked, have you ever done that? If you do, I’d like your opinion of it. Thanks 😊
Yes I have. I always add that little bit of vermouth though. I prefer it that way. I like mine extra dirty with bleu cheese olives! Mmm!
Are you buying the olive juice? What brand is it; the green olive juice?
Yes – just use some of the juice from the olives you buy. Many times I grab the big jar from Costco. There is a company called Temecula Olive Oil that has an amazing Filthy Martini Olive Brine, and if I find it while traveling (we don’t have one here) I always grab a couple!
What vermouth do you recommend? I haven’t found one that tastes quite right yet
I just buy Gallo. You barely need any. In fact, you can just pour some in the glass, give it a swirl and dump it out before adding the vodka and olive juice to the glass if you just don’t like it and feel that it overpowers it. I just add them together because I find it faster. Totally a personal preference!
I absolutely love green olives stuffed with almonds in my dirty martini….yum yum!
That is an interesting idea! I will try that sometime for sure!
1 martini 541 calories? The recipe I see currently is for one martini, but it says 6 ounces of vodka and a half an ounce of vermouth. I know olives can be caloric, but that just can’t be right.
I ran the martini through another nutrition calculator and updated it – It is still coming in over 400 calories. Vodka is caloric, and this one has 6 ounces. This is no tiny martini. Split it in half or use the recipe for two martinis to cut the calories in half.