Pornstar Martinis and Prosecco

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The Pornstar martini we all love them. We may not admit that we all love them, but we do, all of us.

 

The Pornstar Martini was created by Douglas Ankrah of the famous Lab Bar in London, The cocktail was apparently inspired by a drink Ankrah tried at a “louche gentlemen's club” called Mavericks while visiting Cape Town in South Africa.

 

Ankrah wanted to create a drink that was “bold, sexy and playful”. He initially named it the Maverick Martini and later rechristened it to Pornstar Martini, for no particular reason; “The drink is very evocative and tantalising. I called it Pornstar because I thought it was something that a Pornstar would drink. There's nothing sexual there” he said in an interview with The Buyer Net

 

Ankrah’s original version consisted of Vanilla Sugar, Vanilla Vodka, Passionfruit liqueur and Passionfruit Puree, served with a shot of champagne on the side.

 

Nowadays the typical ones you get are usually vanilla vodka, passionfruit liqueur and pineapple juice; there are some variations to this; some people may add orange juice or other citrus just to balance it out, different pureés, I even saw one bar use popcorn syrup which was far too sweet for my liking; but essentially its always the 3 ingredients above. Now, usually a shot of Prosecco is served with the Pornstar martini (i’d imagine because its substantially cheaper than champagne) and no-one knows what to do with it! dDon’t worry I’ll get to that in a moment.

 

 

Pornstar martinis got a bad rep in recent years, whether it was from the “woo hoo girls“ who order far too many of these sweet, easily drinkable cocktails and end up dancing on tables when they shouldn’t, or whether it’s the “tough guys“ that walk around with two of these bad boys with their elbows out, sinking them in no time flat just to look “hard” in front of “the boys” and/or “the Mrs”. It’s understandable why you won’t find Pornstar martinis in certain places as some people might look down their noses at them. They’re incredibly sweet, you find them everywhere and lots of people don’t appreciate other cocktails because they just like drinks chock full of sugar. Any self respecting barman wouldn’t “degrade their craft” by doing something so “basic”, surely? Well, one fact remains as stated previously, we all have to admit that they are indeed delicious. I even talked with some barman friends of mine and we all agreed how fabulous they are and yet none of us were willing to put them on the menu in our establishments both in fact to not attract “the wrong crowd” and also so we could do far wankier things like apricot foams atop almond sours or some such, flexing our creative booze ridden muscles.

 

One key factor that I have noticed over the years is that people do not know what to do with the Prosecco shot. Do you pour it in martini? do you just chin the Prosecco shot say cheers to the Barman and then enjoy the drink you asked for?… You should do neither of these things. The actual purpose of the Prosecco is designed as a palate cleanser of sorts. The Pornstar martini is extraordinarily sweet as we have previously discussed so the idea was that you drink some martini then have a sip of the Prosecco from the shot glass, by alternating you balance out the flavours making the martini taste more sweet when you have something dry and it makes the Prosecco taste more dry when you have something sweet. Going back and forth like this was simply interesting to the tastebuds and it is a nice experience if you’ve ever actually done it.

I cannot stress this enough, do not pour your Prosecco in your martini! it just tastes vile and it offends me greatly.

 

So there you are a little bit of history behind the cocktail that as a nation we consume by the truckload, now all this talk has got me thirsty, I’m going to go find a bar.

 

Cheers!

LCC/  New and Improved Unlocked Libations!