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.

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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 makes a difference. The best vodkas are made from specific 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 stand by, 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 when you shake them just right and there are little ice chips in the glass!

Other Martini Recipes We Love:

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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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