For the toast to Japanese woodworker Miyamoto-san and his ultra cool Refrigerator I’m reaching into the freezer box for something ice cold and easy to pour. Which is not to say it isn’t really good, too. In fact, this ready-made ice box martini won top honors in Punch magazine’s blind martini taste tests. It features a London-dry gin style which is often favored by martini enthusiast, and you will be hard pressed to find a bigger enthusiast than Houston’s own Bobby Heugel, owner of the award winning Anvil Bar & Refuge and Tongue-Cut Sparrow bars.

Heugel’s freezer martini plays with a few essential ideas for the perfect freezer batch. He leans heavily into the classic London Dry style of gin, but softens it by 25% with a lighter, more citrus forward and cocktail friendly gin. The vermouth to gin ration is always critical, and here it clocks in at approximately 44% - not quite a fifty fifty martini but extremely wet. Heugel specifies to use a very dry vermouth, which balances this ratio and keeps things tasting like a real martini. The heavy water dilution allows the drink to mix and mellow, and get ice cold in the freezer, ready to pour, with no further ice stirring needed prior to enjoying. Which is really nice when it’s too hot to do much more than pour. Cheers!

Bobby’s Martini by Bobby Heugel

12 ½ oz London Dry gin (preferably Tanqueray)

4 ½ oz gin (preferably Tanqueray 10)

7 ½ oz dry vermouth (preferably Noilly Prat Extra Dry)

 9 ½ oz filtered water

Combine ingredients in a 1 liter bottle and place in the freezer overnight. Serve when ready in a chilled glass. Lemon twist garnish preferred.

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