I blame Mr. C...

I've just had the worst dry Gin Martini ever - and I blame Mr. C entirely. You see, until a year or so ago I had never tried a Martini - well, not a proper one. Then one evening Mr. C came over and suggested this new sophisticated drink. 'I like them dry', he said, 'Winston Churchill dry'. I later discovered that by this he means with as much gin and as little vermouth as posible - a taste, it turns out, that is very much to my liking also. The problem then turned out to be finding a hotel bar where the word dry is understood. I like to joke 'just show it the vermouth but don't add any' and usually I am understood. However, tonight in Nottingham I forgot to add my usual caveat to the order and as such I was given a 'normal' Martini. Note the (air) quotes there as a normal Martini is usually something like 2 parts gin to 1 vermouth - a combination to which I wholey dislike and fully proclaim as far from normal as one can get. Anyway, I digress, back to the story at hand... The barman added what I can only presume by taste to be equal parts gin and vermouth and served me a drink tasting so sweet and sickly as to be almost unrecognisable - pfah! It was at this point I realised that my tastes have been spoilt - my expectations pushed far too high - my liking for a normal Martini lost for ever. As such came the stark realisation that I have only Mr. C to blame - when you are shown champagne you will never be satisfied with mere water...