Dirty Martini

The Dirty Martini takes the austere gin-and-vermouth classic and stains it with a measure of olive brine, trading crystalline dryness for a savory, saline depth that coats the palate. Stirred cold and strained into a chilled glass, it lands somewhere between a cocktail and a snack, crowned with a green olive. A genericized offshoot of the Martini with no single documented inventor, the drink earned its name and mainstream following only in the late twentieth century.