Name: French Martini
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1.5 ounces vodka; 0.5 ounce Chambord; 0.75 ounces pineapple juice; Lemon twist, for garnish

Prep Time:

5 mins

Total Time:

5 mins

Servings:

1

Yield:

1 drink

Here’s a secret: the French martini isn’t French, and it isn’t a classic martini—but it is a sweet, fruity cocktail that tastes as good as it looks. Made with vodka, pineapple juice, and Chambord, it was created for the famed New York City restaurant Balthazar in the late 1980s. The French martini was an immediate success and was soon being shaken up in bars all over the city ... and the world.

The French part of the drink is the Chambord, a black raspberry liqueur made in the Loire Valley in France. The martini part is that it’s typically served in a V-shaped martini glass garnished with a simple lemon twist.

Fun fact: You can still order a French martini at Balthazar, four decades after its invention!

The Difference Between a Martini and a French Martini

A classic martini is made with gin or vodka and vermouth. That’s it. The proportions of each ingredient vary depending on who you ask—there is much debate about how much vermouth is too much. This famous cocktail is served in the iconic V-shaped glass that shares its name and is always served very cold with an olive garnish.

The French martini is a decidedly different drink. It's a sweeter, fruitier cocktail without vermouth, olive, or gin, but it's served in a martini glass.

Shaken or Stirred?

Cocktail experts say a classic martini should be stirred, not shaken in a cocktail shaker. That rule doesn’t apply to the French martini, though. This one is shaken well with ice until very cold before being strained into a martini glass.

If you don't have a cocktail shaker, use a quart-size mason jar instead. Simply fill it halfway with ice, add your ingredients, and screw on the lid tightly. Shake according to the recipe, and strain through a small fine-mesh sieve.

Chambord Substitutes

Chambord is a black raspberry liqueur that's a key French martini ingredient. Swapping it for a red raspberry liqueur, what the French call crème de framboise, will change the flavor of your French martini a little, but it works. Other substitutes would be dark berry liqueurs like crème de mûre (blackberry) or crème de cassis (black currant).

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Ingredients

1 ½ ounces vodka
½ ounce Chambord
¾ ounces pineapple juice
Lemon twist, for garnish

Directions

Shake ingredients and ice in a cocktail shaker:

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add vodka, Chambord, and pineapple juice, and shake well.

You'll know you've shaken the cocktail long enough when the shaker feels ice-cold and frosty, which should take about 15 seconds.
Strain, garnish, and serve:

Strain into a 4-ounce martini glass and garnish with lemon twist.

How to Garnish a French Martini

We finish our French martini with a lemon twist, which is easier to form than it looks:

Use a sharp paring knife to slice a thin strip of peel from a lemon, then flip it over and trim off any of the white pith.
Next, wrap it around your finger or a chopstick and hold it in place for a few seconds, which will help it retain its twisted shape.

Alternative garnishes: Instead of a lemon twist, you can take a cue from one of the other ingredients in the drink and garnish your cocktail with a small slice of pineapple, perched on the rim of the glass, or a raspberry skewered with a toothpick.