This week in Cocktail Corner, we are discussing one of the most well-known drinks in the world: the martini. Despite its seemingly Italian name, this cocktail is as American as apple pie and the Model T. The martini was made famous to movie audiences by James Bond, who preferred his cocktail shaken, not stirred. There are now many modern variations of the beverage that appear in pop culture, like the appletini, the official drink of Facebook. Or so Aaron Sorkin would have us believe.

A martini is made with gin and vermouth, plus an olive or a lemon twist to garnish. It’s served straight up in a chilled cocktail glass rather than with ice. “Wet” and “dry” refer to the amount of vermouth in a martini. A dry martini features very little vermouth—generally a 5:1 gin to vermouth ratio. A wet martini, on the other hand, is heavy on the vermouth. Vermouth is very sweet, so be wary of adding too much. You can have your martini shaken or stirred, but for the cheap college student, the shaker might be too large of an expense. Another idea for the frugal would be to substitute vodka for gin. Depending on personal taste, choose between the olive or lemon twist as the garnish. Other possible garnishes include pickled onions. The pickled onion martini is known as the Gibson.

The appletini is actually not a direct variation of the martini, as some of the more popular recipes don’t include gin or vermouth. This may upset the martini purists, but an appletini is simply called an appletini because it is served in the same type of glass as a martini. Most appletini recipes call for just two shots of vodka and a shot of apple schnapps. To make the drink more in line with the traditional martini, consider substituting apple vodka for regular vodka in the frugal vodka-and-vermouth martini variation mentioned above. For a peachtini, use peach vodka. Espressotini, espresso vodka. There are almost infinite possibili-tinis out there.

Happy drinking!