Martini’s & Food Pairing
When pairing two flavors you want to strike a balance on the areas of your palate: spice, acidity, sweetness and bitterness. The cocktail and appetizer should hit on all four areas. Below are some tips for planning a perfectly paired Martini and Appetizer menu.
Opposites Attract
Pair simple with complex, i.e. complex appetizer with a simple martini. You probably already know many spicy dishes are “cooled” on the palate with a citrus taste, hence the popularity of a lime Margarita with your favorite Chile Rellanos dish. It naturally follows to try a citrus cocktail with a spicy appetizer. So if spicy food with light refreshing cocktails works, then the opposite is true as well. You can pair a light, refreshing appetizer with a spicy cocktail, a very popular trend. For instance, a common dessert combination of “sweet heat” is combining the sweetness of chocolate with the spice of a Cayenne Pepper. You could pair a food item using these two flavors with a Light, Citrus Lemon Drop Martini, or you could pair a Chocolate or Espresso Martini made with Chili Infused Vodka with a simple Bacon-wrapped water chestnut.
Matching and Contrasting
Cocktails pair by either matching or contrasting the flavors in your appetizer. Adding herbs to known recipes is a great way to complement and contract between your appetizers and cocktails. Try sage with tequila and rosemary with gin. You can muddle herbs into the base of your drink or you use it to garnish and provide an aromatic finish.
Don’t Compete With Each Other
You don’t want your appetizer and cocktail to compete with each other; they should complement each other. If you are familiar with wine pairings; think of strong, bold martini’s on the spectrum of strong, red wines and the lighter, fruiter martinis along the lines of the white wines. You wouldn’t drink Merlot with sushi, so I wouldn’t drink a Manhattan with it either. However, a lemon drop martini might pair very well with it in the same manner that a Chardonnay would pair well with Sushi.
Start Small
Hone your cocktail and food pairing skills by hosting an appetizer and cocktail hour. It is a perfect entertaining idea to serve small plates or appetizers with a selection of cocktails. Before you call your local master mixologist to match your martini menu with a food menu, start with common food associations. Turkey and cranberry, for instance, is a food association that most people would pair together so it goes that a smoked turkey and cheddar appetizer with a Cosmopolitan would pair well, just as they do in food applications. Another good example is lemon and butter: shrimp in a butter sauce with a Lemon Drop Martini. Just remember that martini’s can be changed, tweaked, perfected to pair even better with your menu so don’t be afraid to veer from a recipe you know and try something new!
Your creativity is your only limit! Keep an open mind and remember, there are no rules; only helpful tips from those who have tried before. Even experts try things they think will work well together than end up not hitting a home run and vice versa. If you think it will work - try it!
Specific Pairing Examples:
Pomegranate Martini has a more mild, less sweet taste that blends well with fruits on the sweet side and also with pork, chicken and fish on the savory side.
Shrimp and cocktail sauce, always a party favorite, can be paired well with Sour Apple Martini, Cosmopolitan or Lemon Drop. If the cocktail sauce is particularly spicy/hot, a combination with a Chocolate Martini will balance the taste profile and bring out the flavor of the vanilla notes of the chocolate even more.
Cheeses like baked brie’s, goat cheese, blue cheese would go well with citrus products, or martinis that contain citrus like Sour Apple, Lemon Drop, Cosmopolitan and Pomegranate.
Crab cakes pair well with something a little less rich like the Wildberry Martini, Pomegranate or the Dirty Martini.
Dips, spreads and hummus would be complimented by a Dirty martini or Pomegranate martini
Chips with spicy salsa blend well with the a Lemon Drop Martini or tone down the spice by pairing with a Chocolate Martini.
All the martini’s in the range would serve well with salted nuts and chips as salty and sweet do balance each other well.
And remember don’t forget about your Designated Drive: Serve Martini Gold Martini Mixers with club soda instead of spirits (in the same ratio 1:1, or to taste).