As Herb Caen, the columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, once said, martinis are like boobs–one is not enough but three are too many. Ignoring this sage-like advice, City Weekend invited six of the best bartenders in town to make us their finest martinis, and three local experts to help us drink them in the peaceful surroundings of Vault Bar.

The martini is the king of cocktails, an icon both of perfection and excess. In its classic form, it’s really a very simple drink: gin and vermouth, mixed in a debatable ratio and garnished with an olive. When the drink was invented (some time around the 1860s, though bar fights start over its true provenance), the ratio was about two to one in favor of the vermouth. The amount of vermouth gradually dropped and most bars now use only a dash of the stuff. The Montgomery martini (Hemingway’s favorite) is mixed 15 parts gin to one of vermouth (the ratio of troops Marshall Montgomery liked to have over his enemies before going into battle). Winston Churchill used to say the closest he’d get to a vermouth bottle was to catch a glimpse of it across the room while mixing his martini.

Over the years, people played with other elements of the drink. Add an onion rather than an olive and you have a Gibson. A dash of brine from the olive jar makes a dirty martini. Muddle an olive in the bottom of the shaker and make it filthy, or a splash of Scotch for a smoky martini. James Bond liked his shaken and made with vodka. Graham Greene mixed his with crème de cassis.

In short, the recipe has been evolving for 150 years. These days any number of ingredients served in a cocktail glass can be called a martini, but the classic (dry) gin martini remains the yardstick by which you can measure any decent bar, so it’s there that we will start.

Our Panel of Experts

CW enlisted the help of three local experts to get their take on our bevy of martinis.

Theo Watt

Theo is the publisher of Drink magazine, the bartenders’ bible and the leading publication for the drinks industry in China. He once tasted 51 martinis in four hours when judging a martini contest in Shanghai.

Sky Zhang

The owner of Free Soul bar, one of the coziest drinking spots in town, Sky is a cocktail doyenne, a lover of vodka martinis (shaken or stirred) and can frequently be found atop her own bar, dancing like a loon.

Cross Yu

The head bartender at M1NT, which was voted best club in Shanghai by City Weekend readers earlier this year, Cross is frequently cited as the most professional and creative mixologist in Shanghai.

The Dry Martini

The Minty Gin Martini

The Vault Martini

The VUE Martini

The LAN Martini

The Fig Martini