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Putting an olive in the Martini cocktail or not is a discussion as old as the cocktail itself and may provoke heated arguments. (By the way, the Martini admits, by definition, only a single olive; with 2 olives the same cocktail becomes a 'Franklin'. Some barbarians like to put small onions in a similarly-concocted cocktail, but at least they have the decency to call it a 'Gibson'.) Purists will tell you that without an olive a Martini is little more than a simple glass of gin; on the other hand, other enthusiasts say, quite loudly, that 'anyone who puts an olive in his Martini deserves to be killed'. The problem is, as the Prince of bartenders Alessandro Palazzi once told me in his fabulous bar at the Dukes Hotel in London, the oily contamination occurring when the olive, sitting in the liquor, begins to lose its oil. This is why Mr Palazzi recommends to put a lemon twist in his Martini; this trace of citric acid will contrast the oil.
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Well, I like having an olive in my Martini (either the 'Pasini Express' or the 'Vesper Modified') but I don't like their oily dispersion and definitely loathe to put any lemon in there. The solution? Put the olive....under ice. You put a large non-stoned olive in a ice cube tray and fill it with fresh tap water; when the cube is frozen the olive, encapsulated in the cube, will be insulated from your gin/vodka. This also helps keeping the temperature cold enough for quite a long time; don't worry about diluting the mix, if you use gin and vodka stored in freezers at -10°C and mixed directly in an ice-cold glass (as my Martini are) no dilution occurs in the shaker and the cocktail can take a few drops of water coming from the thawing ice/olice cube without losing its strength. This will also encourage you to drink it in the right time to get at the bottom of the glass before the olive gets completely 'naked'.
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