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French Martini
Occasionally, at the new bar, I get requests for a French Martini. Prior to this I had never heard of one, nor had I made one, but after a quick look through Difford's Guide to Cocktails, it was a simple effort to shake one up. What strikes me odd about this cocktails is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of “french” in this cocktail. But then again so many cocktails suffer from this problem. The part that makes this a French Martini, is the Chambord raspberry liqueur. The vodka and pineapple juice are not that french, but they do combine nicely in this cocktail, in a martini fashion.
The key ingredient in this cocktails is Chambord, which is made from black raspberries, honey, vanilla and some herbs. Chambord has been made for about 300 years in France (since 1685) and is a sweet, but tasty liqueur. Chambord is all natural, unlike other synthetically flavour liqueurs and is a very versatile liqueur in cocktails. It is relatively light in alcohol strength, at 23%, and has a retail price, for a 750ml bottle, of $38 CDN ($30US). 
The French Martini was created by the Chambord liqueur company for a world wide promotion. It seems to have worked, and the cocktail is now quite popular. This is what liqueur and spirit companies need to do when creating cocktails. Most spirit companies just take the name of their product and apply it to a long list of classic cocktails. That’s just so boring and unimaginative. But is Chambord’s case, they created a popular cocktail that is original and tied to the product. This is good marketing.
French Martini
2 oz Vodka
½ oz Chambord
2 ½ oz Pineapple Juice
Back a shaker full of ice and add all ingredients. Shake or stir*. Stain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
* I shake because the pineapple juice makes the drink cloudy anyway, and the shaking give the drink a nice light texture because pineapple juice froths nicely.
When the Chambord company was creating the French Martini, it might have been more French to include brandy instead of vodka. One of these days I’ll shake one up with brandy and check out whether it works or not. They probably tried it and decided that for mass appeal and the martini moniker, vodka was the proper choice. For now, if you want to put a little more “french” in your French Martini, use Ciroc vodka which is a grape based vodka (sounds like grappa to me). Or you can use the ubiquitous Grey Goose vodka which is of french origin.
Another good cocktail to make with Chambord is simply adding an ounce to a flute of champagne. This is a much nicer cocktail than a Kir Royale, even though a Kir Royale is a great drink also. It's good to mix thing up every once in a while.
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If you want to French this cocktail up really nicely, might i recommend using Jean Marc XO vodka. It's also French (from the same people who make X Rated vodka and X Rated passion fruit liqueur), but it's made using the same process as cognac, and it's distilled no less than nine times. The end result is an unrivaled smoothness and a potent flowery nose that blends seamlessly with Chambord.
Hello!
Sorry but a Martini is good gin( Beefeater), good vermouth (Dry Cinzano), and good olives(maybe garlic stuffed). That's it. More or less , it's not a martini! Please call it something else....
Kelly,
It is called something else:
"Martini"
"French Martini"
See?
I agree, a Martini IS gin and vermouth (and a drop of orange bitters). But this is an established cocktail. It would be more confusing if Darcy just renamed it.
Darcy, Thanks for posting this. I actually get some orders for this, and I never remember it. Now I think I will commit it to memory.
Jimmy
My personal recipe for a French Martini is as follows:
2 shots Vodka,
1 shot Pineapple Juice,
1/2 shot Chambord,
1/4 shot Gomme Syrup
Shake and strain; cocktail glass; garnish with a single raspberry.
Other methods include muddling pineapple chunks instead of using pineapple juice.
Also, and this is very odd, some people claiming to be French Martini Purists insists that the FM is never garnished as the foam from the shaking of the pineapple juice is all that is needed.
And that Gin&Vermouth martini purist should just get over herself.
True Gin Martinis are half Plymouth Gin, half Vermouth, dashes of Orange Bitters, and served with no garnish.
a french martini should be a cocktail glass washed with cointreau, and then 5ml of lillet blanc and 55ml Orange vodka (grey goose orange) stirred and strained.
cocktails that can be found on glossy cards attatched to liqueur bottles are best avoided.
Sorry gents, I have to agree with Kelly.
Just because it was named already still doesn't make it a martini.
On Board a pricess cruise over Thanksgiving, I enjoyed a "Black Martini" made with Bombay Saphire, Chambord, and Blue Curacao. It was very tasty, and it's color was more very dark blue, instead of black, but it was interesting.
Where can you buy this stuff? Can you get it at a local liquir store in Canada?? i would like to know thanx.
lets not get arrogant, kelly & rich. correct - it's not a traditional martini, but its served in a martini glass. wait. no. it's served in a cocktail glass... further argument now bound to ensue.
a manhattan can be created, made and sold in jamaica. a sex on the beach is highly likely to be available in switzerland. a name shouldn't be misleading, but i don't find the french martini is in the slightest. jimmy hit the nail on the head.
I first heard about French Martini's a little less than a year ago. I love them! And for the last year of ordering them, they have all been similar.
(Vodka, Chambord, and Pineapple Juice).
The amount of chambord used seems to vary from bartender to bartender. But all of them have had pretty much the same main ingredients. I always knew what I was going to get until last weekend. This time when I ordered a french martini I received a mix of
Vodka
Chambord
and GRAND-MARNIER
seems a bit more french to me...
but alas where did this mix-up come from? My boyfriend said he remembered looking up a french martini years ago and that was the recipie...
Did the "French Martini" transform from one thing to another in the past couple years?
The 'French Martini' with Grand-ma was delicious.
I am happy I tried it, and will order another in the future. But I still REALLY REALLY like the first "French Martini" I came to know. The way the pineapple juice froths is EXCELLENT!
I just went to the official site for Chambord www.ChambordOnline.com and this is their recommendation for a French Martini
1 1/2oz Finlandia Vodka
1/2 oz of Chambord
1/2 oz of pineapple juice.
Shake ingedients with ice and strain into glass.
Wow, wake-up you purists. Nowadays, anything served in a cute triangular, stemmed glass, that's shaken, people consider a martini (including liquor companies). I agree with you all, but the dinasaurs couldn't adapt & look what happened to them. I've always been taught a French Martini is made with Grey Goose or Ciroc or some other french vodka, Chambord, & pineapple juice (which still doesn't make sense or stay true to the name French).
Over here in London, I have worked in several high end cocktail bars, and everywhere makes it with equal vodka and chambord. So its 25ml vodka, 25ml chambord, 75ish ml pineapple juice. We have to by law measure out the spirits with measureing thimbles but just do the juice by eye. Then shake it very well with ice in a boston shaker, to make it very foamy. Then serve in a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a raspberry and stand two straws in V shape in it (the real test is its foamy enough!) Enjoy!
Is it a martini?
If you want to be really pedantic martini is a brand of sweet vermouth.
The addition of gin makes it a "martini cocktail". But over the years the "cocktail" has been dropped.
...think thats right?
Technically folks, it is said that a Martini can be made with either Gin or Vodka. Just because u prefer Gin does not mean any with Vodka is not a martini!
That is all!