The Masked Singer, WikiFeet & The Ultimate Martini Masterclass

20:37Alan Carr:Wait, sorry. And built a distillery. You got run over? Yeah. By a lorry? Yeah. Oh, my God, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, it all turned out well. So talk about getting knocked down, literally, and then get back up and build a distillery. So I started making some gin, made a little bit more, made a little bit more, built this, got this in 2018, spent this as my maternity project, and then we're now here. Okay, so you say started making some gin. Most people who are listening or watching will be like, how does one go about starting to make gin? So the little stills that are behind you are little alambinic stills that you can make gin on.

21:14So they are used for essential oils. You can do that as well. My mum was an aromatherapist. I made it more fun with booze. So you can make essential oils. And then so you can make two bottles on those. And you can come and do a gin school and learn how to make it. So you pick your own botanicals. It goes into the still. You make a recipe. You see how that recipe is. You either change it, work with it, and then built it slowly from there. So got a big order, built a little bit bigger, got another order, built a big order.

21:39Alan Carr:We've always said it's chemistry. Isn't it chemistry? It is all chemistry, isn't it? And it's learning. It's trial and error. There was lots of errors. Why is it 58 and co? Is that like a really obvious question? It did take me hiring a marketing manager to get this answer, but 58 recipes to get right. And co was around collaboration, community and connection. It also is my initials and it took her walking in and going, oh, it's named after you. And I went, oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know where my strong suits are. Marketing's not. But it interests me if your mum was in aromatherapy and stuff, do you feel like it kind of runs through?

22:15Very much so. And gin was her love. And one of the things she said, she fortunately passed away. But one of the things she kind of gave me was, if you're going to do this, you do it right. So basically, the week after she passed away, I sold my house, my car, got on an airplane, moved here, didn't know anybody, maybe tindered my way through London.

22:34Alan Carr:Oh my God, that is the best expression I've ever heard. I tindered my way through London. Are you crying? I'm welling up slightly He's welling up, my God What's wrong with you? Bingo card It was a great way to see the scene, meet people The thing is, I've learned from doing this podcast apart from Don't Work With Your Friends is Well, you don't Bottoms up No, gin, I think you know, and I'm guilty of this when it's the summer, it's either rosé or I get a voddy and something gin is so underrated for that summer drink it's got so much kick to it and i keep forgetting you know how fab a gin and tonic is or a gin and elderflower and how easy it is yes because i i remember maybe 27 28 so maybe about 10 years ago actually gin having this huge surge yep and now i feel maybe at the minute i want to say it's possibly tequila has kind of overtaken a little Nothing can crawl forever going up and up.

23:37Exactly, yeah. But the law changed.

23:39Alan Carr:I think gin was probably one of the first where it was like, we make artisan type gins. Your Brockmans, I remember being obsessed with that. The Brockmans, which has a touch of grapefruit gin. The Hendrix as well. Hendrix came out and all that. Yeah, and then just there's so many now. Well, Sipsmith's changed, got the law changed. So we couldn't make gin on a small scale until 2009 when the guys from Sipsmith, they're lovely people, they had the law changed with HMRC so they changed the law and now we can make it on small still so you have to get all the proper licenses I was doing it with all the proper licenses but now before you had to be doing it on a thousand litres still so sorry I didn't know this so the law originally and how did that come into place?

24:22Alan Carr:was it the government did that? yeah in like the 1700s when everyone was drinking too much gin I've done a gin, not a course but I went to a thing and wasn't it that It was so easy to make gin. And isn't that picture over there? That's Holgarth's Gin Lane. It is. And didn't everyone go a bit mental? Yeah, a litre and a half a day because it was safer to drink gin than water. The girl drinking pints of gin, there's that famous, you know, John Snow who found out there was cholera in the water. All the people drinking the water were dying and the people in the pub were like, ha ha. Well, I don't think they were technically going that.

24:57Alan Carr:That's not verbatim. Don't call me a historian, but... But yeah, so gin, they put the laws in place, so that small producers, so everybody that was making it in their bathtubs, hence bathtub gin. Bathtub gin. That couldn't, but they had to stop there. So they had the law change. That was only 2009. That feels late. And so you did see that kind of boom of cocktails because you had the 80s was like, you know, vodka makes everything silent. Nobody knows the smell, its taste. You can't taste it. You can't smell it. So nobody knows you've had it for your nice long lunch. That was that kind of. So 80s.

25:29So 80s. So then you had this like resurgence with gin. and people I think with tequila now as well is you're getting another surgence because the quality of tequila has really come a far away from what we were always getting was that mixado full of sugar.

25:43Alan Carr:Loads of people say to me, oh my God, I don't like tequila and I'm like, you haven't had bad tequila and that's why, yeah. Yeah, and with Holly Willoughby, you guys did your episode and I love that you guys were tasting reposados and showing that it really can't. There's so much in spirits that you might think you might not like which is why we're going to do martinis because somebody thinks they might not like a martini. I don't think I like it. But what do you think makes a good mixologist? Because I've seen your filthy banana on Saturday Kitchen. That is a cocktail. Yeah. Yeah, right. No. I'm not on that app.

26:18Alan Carr:Was that your username when you were Tindering? Yes. A lot of people swipe right. Because you are dangerous as well because I've seen you on Instagram, obviously, and when it was at the Bloody Mary and you were calling it a salad in a glass, she's so convincing. It is. Well, you get your one in five. Yeah. Why not? It's liquid tomato juice. It's great on an airplane if you're really hungry and they haven't fed you something. Yeah. Have a Bloody Mary. Oh, good. Good tip. So then when did you open this? What year did you eventually open? So I got this in 2018. It was derelict, covered in petrol.

26:55The toilets looked like a scene from Saw. And I renovated it. I found things from salvage yards, learned how to tile, learned to do brickwork, built it. We opened in 2019. And then that small thing called COVID hit six months later.

27:09Alan Carr:I was going to say, because like, yeah, what? Because actually, you know, you may correct me if I'm wrong, but some places actually during COVID when they could do like deliveries and stuff, how did you adapt? What happened during that? Great time to not have a website. Perfect. And also we got a phone call from our glass supplier and our glass supplier shut down. So we had no gin to bottle and we had no website to sell. And I got a phone call from a charity and they said, can you make us some hand sanitizer? I was like, yeah, I totally know how to make hand sanitizer. No problem. Hung up the phone and went, fuck, how do I make hand sanitizer?

27:46So I did, I turned to my distiller. We turned it around in a couple of hours. We sent it off to get chemically analyzed. A couple of hours. We had alcohol, high strength alcohol. We had glycerin, vegetable glycerin, and we had hydrogen peroxide, which is what you'd use in mouthwash at a lower percent. And we did the three of them, put them together, sent it off. And we ended up kind of making 50 bottles for this charity. The week later, everything shut down. And I jokingly said to my team, imagine if we stopped making gin and made hand sanitizer. PM put us into shutdown and lockdown. And we ended up making 50 ,000 liters of hand sanitizer, stopped all alcohol production, became official suppliers to the Met Police, the NHS, and had distilleries all over the world change their production into doing what we were doing to help with the, so we had people in Brazil and Germany and Japan calling us saying, how did you do it?

28:41And it was just to come together and yeah, I then had it months later, had a gentleman walk down the road and walk in, I thought was what he was walking in with Flavor Flav's necklace because he opened this box and I was like, what's happening? And it was the Lord Lieutenant on behalf of the Queen delivering a letter. Which, so Canadian, I thought I was getting punked. I'm obsessed with you. Oh, what alcohol does to people.

29:10Alan Carr:Talking of which. Yes, exactly. Quite dry. So I think we should drink some neat spirits. Yay. Fine, if you must. Fine, fine. So how I like to teach martinis is the five Ds. So it's a great way to start because you'll remember a good D. And we start with drink, which is you can make a martini with really spirits, any kind of spirits you want. Classically, we're not doing anything by the rule book because I'm a big believer that being told something one way is the only way is not the way you should. You should do it any way you like. So we have gin and we have vodka. So when you're making a martini, you want them, normally we will start with your mixing glasses, which we are going to build as a team.

29:58You guys are each going to get your own mixing glass and you're going to each build your own martini. So we are doing stirred down. We'll talk about that shaken versus stirred. Okay. But we are going to start with our drink. So gin and vodka. We're going to start by tasting some neat vodka first. Okay. Because then you guys get to decide if you like vodka or if you like gin. Vodka is clean and neutral. It's, again, everybody's personal preference. We're going to also teach you how to swirl and sip. So, have we... Now, we've learned...

30:32Alan Carr:Yeah, we're not very good at sipping, are we? No. We have learned how to sip and taste wine. So what is the very first thing we do when we're sipping wine? Nose into the glass. No, smell it. Smell it. What did Lee just do? Nose into the glass. He whipped it around. Swirl. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. It's the opposite for spirits. The thing about me is, Carmen, I don't really like being told what to do. You don't like the rules. I like to rip up the rule book. He handed it back to me. He handed it back. Touché. Touché. No, why don't we do that? The reason you do it, so with wine, you rip it around to get all of those beautiful aromas.

31:14With alcohol, what that does is releases all the ethanol. So you're going to smack your face with a bunch of ethanol, and it's going to hurt your olfactory settings. So we don't want that because we want to be able to actually taste the spirit. So you can tilt it around the glass. If it sticks to the glass like heavy legs, that's a sign that there's sugar added to it. So we're going to tilt side to side. Now we're going to tinder our nostrils.

31:36Alan Carr:Tinder our nostrils. So what do we do with tinder? Swipe. Exactly. So that's why we go from side to side. So it's swiping left and right. Because our nostrils have two different cavities and smell two different things. What? Yes. Also, depending on what your brain, which way your brain's working, will depend on which nostril is better. I think my right nostril's better. I get more of a scent from that. So that means your logical side of your brain, because your right nostril is attached to your... I am very logical. Yes, very logical. It also resets every three to six hours. Does it? Yeah. Really?

32:13Alan Carr:Yeah. Yeah, so sometimes one side of your brain, so creativity, logic... It goes back to olfactory settings. That's good. There you go. So you swipe back and forth, and then we date our taste buds. So nobody wants to have it all up in your face first meeting. No, we don't, especially when it comes to D.

32:35Alan Carr:Carry on, Carmen. You need to have the vodka first, then you're ready for the D. Oh yeah, that wasn't one of the Ds, sorry shit. Pre-D. That's posty. That's the end of it. That's when you've had the martini and you're ready for it. So you're going to taste. So you're putting enough on your taste buds to let it dissipate, not to swallow. So no swallowing at the first go, Alan. This is stressful. Yeah. A little bit, little sip. Just enough to taste, not to swallow. Pinky up. Who was telling me about pinky up? It means you've got syphilis. Okay, anyway. Someone told me it means you've got syphilis.

33:11Alan Carr:Okay. So there should be enough on your palate. It goes clean. And then you go in for your second, because you're tasting neat spirits. This is a 37.5. This is not 12. You definitely have enough in your mouth to swallow. I had way too much. I swallowed it. Do I need to teach you both how to not swallow first?

33:32Alan Carr:Went down the road. Why? It's coming back. You held it in your mouth too long. Okay. Good alcohol warms. Nice. Bad alcohol berms. oh we've all had that bad alcohol before yeah yeah but this is a clean neutral vodka so shouldn't have flavor it shouldn't taste of something you want it tastes clean spirit yeah nice this is also because we clean the still in between every production run we don't have build-up um that makes it so you're tasting the wheat and that kind of lemon biscuitiness over like a potato vodka or a whey vodka they'll never understand that potato vodka because you go I've distilled my potatoes.

34:11Carbohydrates. If you have a carbohydrate, you can make a vodka. Ooh! There you go. Pasta, can you make pasta, vodka? I haven't tried it. All right, so now you're going to go in to actually taste enough, but you both have already tasted it because you didn't go... Shall I have another one? Oh, God. Clean, neutral. So with a vodka martini, you're going to be having that clean spirit. Now, this is also straight up and warm.

34:37Alan Carr:Yeah, it is warm. Yeah, traditionally when you're having a martini, we're gonna have it - Would you put it in the freezer? But we are tasting it at room temperature because if you taste it cold, you get none of the aromas. So, now we're gonna go to gin. So when you're thinking about how you want to taste your martini, is do you want it more botanical-led? Do you want to feel more in your mouth of that like juniper, that citrus in there? Or do you want it clean and neutral? What have you had before that you've liked? Do you know what? I think I tell myself that I love vodka, but I think actually gin.

35:12So now we're going to gin. So we're swiping back and forth.

35:15Alan Carr:Now I will say, I will say, the legs, it sticks a little bit more than the vodka does. Yes, very much. Now the reason being... Ooh, teacher's pet. I'm impressed. Not a lot of people see that. We have vanilla in it. Vanilla gives viscosity. We also use a triple A juniper, which the higher your juniper grade, the better it is, which is add viscosity, it's also going to add that nice, it's going to make the gin stay on your palate longer. You don't want it dissipating. You don't want to take a sip and it be gone. You want it to stay and linger. Like a perfume on a sheet after you've had a one night stand.

35:51Alan Carr:I think we need to get more into her backstory. Yes. She has lived. Wasn't something placed outside the shop here when you first moved in? Oh my.

36:07I don't know if that's an outtakes or...

36:09Alan Carr:No, no, no, there was just something there. There was something. There was something that had a shape of something and by midday it was gone. Yeah. So someone came to pick up their unused goods. Someone came. Oh, yeah. Anyway, come on. Anyway, so this is gin. So this is, again, it's got that pink grapefruit. No, it's good. Pink grapefruit. It's got citrus. It's got licorice root. But you also have that stick to it as well, which is going to give that viscosity. So should I do a tiny sip where it goes? You've taken vodka now, your taste buds are used to it. So, we will then go into our dry, which is around vermouth.

36:45And that is gonna determine how much you guys are gonna be putting into your martini. Now, so I'm going to, so we're gonna give you vodka, we're gonna give you gin, and we're gonna give you jiggers. Okay. So, I think you guys should probably go in with about 60 mils of your spirit. So most jiggers are going to be at 50 mils, so 50, and then you add another 10 into it.

37:09Alan Carr:Is that 10 at the bottom? No, that's 25. Yeah, that's 50, and then that's half of it. Yeah, half. Okay, so I think, because do I usually do it 60 and then 15 mil of vermouth? Is that right? So once you get like 60 to 20, you're going into wet area. Yes. But this 15 and 10 and 5 is more of your dry. Right, so the drier you want it. So if someone says, I like it dry, you can... So you mean less vermouth, which is where we'll go into vermouth. Yeah, not water, like I said. Well, but you do add dilution to it. So it's technically not wrong. It was just a different part. Should we not be using frozen one or does it not matter?

37:47We're going to stir it down. So we will add ice. But for the sake of all of those listening right now, we have not put ice in it because if we were to put ice in it right now, it'll be melted by the time we have finished.

37:58Alan Carr:God, you're good. So we don't want to dilute it. We need to keep that spirit boozy. And what does James Bond have again? Shake it. So that's where we'll talk about shake and stir because when you stir down spirits, you dilute at a lower pace. And so you keep spirit forward drinks stirred because that gets it cold without adding water. What's that say about James Bond though? And he says shake, shake it. He says shake it because you're adding ice. You're diluting it so he can go kill people. That's good. There's a hack. If you are thinking of murdering someone, shake and not stirred. shake is gonna make it um dilute more at that point so it's definitely don't say we're promoting murdering because that's not what we want to say doesn't it add a bit like of an oxygen so when you have citrus in drinks yeah that's the time you want to add shaking too or if you have a foamer or anything that you have a nice head on it yeah that's when we shake which is why you shake things like your margaritas your espresso martinis and things like that yeah yeah So shake versus stir.

38:57So now we're going to talk about vermouth. We're going to talk about how wet you like it. Vermouth is fortified wine. So it has been, it's wine starts, and then you add a spirit to it to bring the alcohol up, and then you add botanicals in it to flavor it. So with vermouth, you have to have wormwood in it for it to be classed a vermouth. So I'm going to show you guys.

39:20Alan Carr:Can I ask what is wormwood? It is a bitter agent, bitter botanical that you would add to it. So each country kind of has different vermouths they're known for. So like French is more floral. Italian's more herbaceous. Spain's more spicy. So I'm going to show you guys a dry, a semi-sweet and a sweet. And I imagine, is it maybe based on wine, what wines you like? Could that help determine what vermouth you might like? It is. Your wine is where you base it. I like it. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He really does. He does. He puts me to shame. He does. But also how sweet you have it as well.

40:02Alan Carr:And also there was a push for Vermouth to be seen for more cocktails, wasn't there? Yes, Vermouth and soda. Yeah, my next door neighbour, and they were absolutely delicious, but I never ever would go for Vermouth. You wouldn't think it, would you? But she says we're trying to get people to realise that Vermouth is an option. Yeah. And you've got your own one as well, 58 & Co. That's a semi-sweet. So we actually worked with a company and took all of their Pinot Grigio that they couldn't sell. And we then grew the botanicals on site and made a semi-sweet. So it's like an English, which we just take from every country and then have turned it into semi-sweet.

40:36But this is a dry. So this means there's less sugar in it. So the drier the vermouth, it means there's less sugar. So this is extra dry. So there's even less sugar.

40:46Alan Carr:That smells sweet. It still has sweetness in it. It still has sugar, but it is going to be the least amount of sugar per gram per liter. It's not my favourite taste. Now, I wouldn't personally be drinking a dry vermouth by itself. No. I'm going to make you face it. So why did you give it to me then? Because it's education, Alan. Education. Now, so in a dry martini, even though it sounds kind of counterintuitive, in a dry martini, you're going to use dry vermouth and put very little. if you put a wet martini you want more dry vermouth dry oh the aftertaste of that yes I was going to say I told you we should education education don't worry this will make it better this will make it better a little yes so this is a bit sweeter this is a bit sweeter so this is mid-range the 58 and co this is a semi-sweet so it has more sugar it's caramelly yes yeah very good it's got apples that we use from our apple and hibiscus gin oh it's getting better yeah now that's where you would add soda There you go.

41:49See? More sugar. That's what your brain likes.

41:53Alan Carr:It's a bit like, yeah. It's similar to port. It is, yeah, definitely. Because port is, at the end of the day, kind of that fortified wine base. Yeah, I knew that. Sweet vermouth is where you'd have something in, like a Negroni. You're not lying. We are genuinely just drinking neat spirits all afternoon. Great. Good luck with your arm healing. I know I can feel swelling I'm going to guess that he will like your one 58 & Co the middle one I think the one is a little too sweet Yes So I'm yeah I think I'm agreeing with this because I think that is a very good choice What the 58 & Co one The 58 because I My guess Go figure I did guess now I guessed you would do dry and I guessed you would go sweet You'd go semi dry and semi But I want you guys to make it the way you want it.

42:47Alan Carr:So when you say you like it dry, it isn't necessarily the type of vermouth. It's the measures. Yeah. Traditionally, you're going to be putting dry in it, an extra dry or a dry. But I like, again, not being told how you should have it and having a semi-sweet if you like it as well as an option. So tell us about the dirty chat. That's what I want to know. Is that one of the Ds? It is one of the Ds. Let's talk dirty. So it all comes down on how dirty you like it. Now, from... I'm like Christina Aguilera. Daddy! That's filthy. Ooh, coming through. Give me some room. So. Oh, you're going to be sick then.

43:28Alan Carr:And I'm more like, I'm less. I'm more like Britney Spears. I'm not a girl, not yet a woman. Okay. Have you seen her on Instagram? This was like many, many years prior. Many years prior. so it all comes down to what kind of dirty now from what i've got and stalking you guys both on your podcast and listening to it you both don't really like it that dirty no no but there's i had an ex who loved it dirty now don't make your own jokes that nobody eats olive and the brine okay so i love gherkins there or pickles whatever and then you've got i love all these flavors actually so i do think i would like it dirty so are these um you're giving us four different just for the Do you want to, hey lady, do you want me to do that for you?

44:11Alan Carr:Yeah. Well, don't tear your tendon. I did get run over by a lorry and crushed my hand, so I'm going to use that as my excuse. Oh my God, and now just given the cardboard story, you must have thought, what a pussy. That's right. I thought if I didn't say it. There you go, darling. Thank you. I came in as well. I was like, oh, Carmen, you won't believe what's happened to me. Finds out you've been run over by a lorry. Anyway, so what's happened here is, for the purpose of the listeners, there are four shot glasses. And we have what do we have? We have gherkin brine. We've got picky gherkins. We've got balsamic pearled onions.

44:45Alan Carr:Ah, all right. Can I just eat one of them? We've got olives, Pirello olives, one of the best brands of olives, I will say. And they're the spicy ones. Oh, can I have one? You can't give him one and not me. Straight in the mouth. You're equally loved. Dirty. You ever been teabagged by an onion? Please make it. Oh, are you all right? Heimlich. Oh, no, your arm. Sorry. Also, that's not the Heimlich, that's a hug. Oh, yeah. I knew it began with an H. So many people have died. Sorry. Do we have some water? Are you okay? Yeah, yeah, it went down the wrong hole. Do you want some water? No, no, I'll just have vermouth.

45:40Alan Carr:So come on, let's focus. Okay, so it's kind of like we're doing picklebacks, but this is around what kind of dirty. So you can have definitely all different kinds of dirty. So I'm going to put in front, so you guys can each try a little sip. This one is pickle dirty. Okay. Then we've got pickled balsamic onions, which is what I've just put in your mouth. Then we have a little bit of perello olives, which is what you classically have as your dirty. and then we have just pickled onions. So this would make a Gibson martini and then we'd have a dirty martini. Oh yes, my friend loves Gibson and that's the pickled onions one.

46:17So both of these would be classed as a pickled onion but I just think, again, you can have all different kinds of brine and that's your pickles.

46:24Alan Carr:What are you like when you go to a cocktail bar? Because you know everything. You are, you know every little word, you know every name. Is it one of your, what's the word? Does it piss you off when you say, can I have a martini? and the person doesn't know what you're asking for. Is that a bit of a gripe for you? No, I'll just go back there and make it myself. No, not at all. I love to look at the back bars of everything. And also, there's some amazing bartenders and they will create some incredible things. So they can create it and then I can showcase what they've made. I find it difficult to choose which of those are my favourite because I love them all.

46:59Alan Carr:You love pills. You like it dirty. I think I do like it dirty. I thought I was Britney, but I'm Christina. See, so the filthier, the dirtier you are, like slutty dirty, that means you're going to add lots of brine. Give me a shot of that mouthwash, I'm feeling so dirty. You could get even so dirty where you put blue cheese. Yes. Oh, no way. Blue cheese? Imagine you get a head of blue cheese. That's what, you get it a lot. No way. I've seen a blue cheese martini. A blue cheese floater in the top? No, you would stir it in. Oh, that's okay then. God, I feel stupid. It'll look like swamp water, but that's when it's filthy.

47:48That's really dirty. So now we know our brines. We know how dirty we like it. So you can go dirty, or you don't have to go dirty.

47:55Alan Carr:I'm going dirty. Okay. So we're doing wet, dirty. Wet and dirty. Wet, dirty. Yeah, I want to have a tetanus when I leave here. I think I want it dirty, but Alan wants it dirty. So for the purpose of this show, Alan does dirty vodka. Dirty vodka. Because actually, yeah, that's better, isn't it? And I will do a fresh, nice gin one. You'll do a dry. Dry. Zesty. Dry with a lemon zest. Perfect. Fab. And we can taste each other's. Yep. And that's good. And also, because that is, I'm really pushing my boundaries having this, because you know I don't like martinis and now I'm going for like really like yeah so he's going all in I'm going all in oh my goodness this is me this is like Fifty Shades of Grey isn't it this is like me putting that blindfold on and being tickled is it no yeah yeah yeah just not so we have the ice we've got ice we've poured 60ml of gin and vodka respectively into our mixing.

49:01So we're going to get ice. We want lots of ice.

49:03Alan Carr:I was going to say this. So I feel like I'm fighting the fight for ice. You are. You are. Because a lot of people will say less ice. Don't put loads of ice in it. Don't want to dilute it. It's the cost of living crisis. People want more alcohol. It's not going to give you a giant bloody ice cube. No, but that's better because the surface area is bigger, which means dilution will be slower, which means you're not going to, if you only put a little... Thank you for that. Fascinating. Oh, OK. Well, you just drink your watery drinks then. Don't try and have any help from me. No, just put one ice cube in that.

49:39Alan Carr:Let's see how he gets on. Sick of it. Don't need to be like that. You want lots of ice because we're trying to cool the drink down. But where do you stand on the massive ice cube? That's a whole other segment we can talk about is making your own ice at home. but a big ice cube means that it's going to keep that drink nice and cold. So you're taking Lee's side? I am Switzerland. Taking a side of fact. Yes. Not fiction. I am neutral. So now we're going to go in with our vermouth. You're going in wetter. Wetter, yeah. So you're going to go in 20 mils. So maybe the other side is 25, so just under that.

50:17Alan Carr:Just under. And you are going in, you are going to go dry, so you're going to use a semi-sweet, so you're going to go about 10. Yeah, 10. Okay? All right. So, and then you are going dirty. So your D, which you can pour from the can. I would only probably put about 10 mils. You're not going filthy. No. So you've got that. So you're pouring it over your ice, which is also cooling your drink down as well. And you know what I've got at home, which I love? It's a precise jigger where each of the measurements are on there. I'm a bit hungry. You're all my kind of people. Oh, I love this. Can I, is this?

50:50Alan Carr:Yes. Yes, safe. You're good. You have your things to do. Did you miss your mouth? Oh, we got it. My mouth. Oh, it's all right. We've got extras. We've got extras. All right, so the vermouth is in. The gin is in. The vodka and vermouth is in. Alan, we stir. Okay, so we stirred it down. We're nice and cold. Do you see the condensation on the glass? That's a sign it's cool enough. If you didn't see the condensation, you haven't stirred it down enough. He's free-spiriting it. We're free-spiriting. Again, no rules. No rules. There you go. Love it. Ice cold glasses. And you guys both have your strainer there.

51:22So you're going to pop that into the mixing glass, which is that right there. Pop that in.

51:27Alan Carr:They're a little bit bigger for the glass. Yeah. Are they? Oh, like that? Tip go... like that. Nice. Okay. Okay. Like that, yeah. Face it that way, there you go. And you're going to strain it into your glass. Yeah. Oh, lovely. Beautiful. Now, Lee is going to go for a zest. Yep. Now, Carmen, do you mind if I just do a little bit of a... on the side there? Yes. What I would also suggest is break the back of it, you get all of the oils. And what's that called, like rimming? Yeah, you want a full rim around that. Great. So a bit like... You should. You get the essential oils there. You get the essential oils, yeah.

52:09So when you break the pith, because that has the essential oils, put a nice little rim, pop it into the glass, then that gives you your citrus twist. and now we're going to go in with...

52:22Alan Carr:Oh, look at those juicy olives, lovely. Yours is very nice and full. Oh, is that... You want to sip it? There you go. If that's too erotic, let me know. You've made my day. It's my year. You've made it all. You've made it all. So there you go. So you've got your dress now So you could have your pickled onions, you could have olives, you could have lemon peel, which is that classic twist. And now you both have made your own martinis, the way you guys think you like it. Should I do this? Should I put it on the... Traditionally, they'll just pop it in. Pop it in, pop it in. Don't we be nice with this?

53:06Snacks!

53:08Alan Carr:Snacks! She's good. She took the words right out of your mouth. Well, cheers, bottoms up. I'm all about a snack. So we've got a crisp shootery. So open a bag, slice it open, throw some manchego, so some olives on it, some prosciutto. And then also I've got my dirty martini dip. So this is that filthy dirty martini dip. So you've got olives, you've got blue cheese, you've got cream cheese, you've got some gin, olive brine. It is delicious. So you can grab a crisp, have a martini. What do we think about the martinis? So I like the dry one. Dry. That's delicious. And you like dirty. I'm not just saying it, honestly.

53:51Alan Carr:It's delicious, isn't it? Clean. I think, do you know what? I think for me it would depend on the mood I'm in. And actually that dirty one, really nice. But actually if I was feeling a little bit fresh and zesty. Hot out, zesty. Hot out and I fancy something. and I don't fancy a kind of massive flavour sensation. I might go, I'm gonna go dry. And you can make those and pop them in the freezer and have it ready for whenever you need. You can make that mix up. So take a little bit out of your bottle, make a freezer door, add the vermouth, pop the lid on, pop it in the freezer, whatever day you're having, you have freezer door martinis ready at all times.

54:29Alan Carr:Oh my God, I love it. So there you go, you've got martinis, you've learned the five Ds, we've got drink, we've got dry, we've got dirty, we've got dilute, and then we've got dress. And do you know what? We've got the 6D. Delicious. Bottoms up. He's going to be crying again. Bottoms up. That's brilliant. Oh, I need to use that. Carmen, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Because I sometimes think people feel a bit intimidated by martinis of how to make them, but they're actually pretty simple to make. And if you do want to make this at home, then feel free, they can log on to your website, 58andco.com.

55:04Alan Carr:Yes. Or, if that's too much, too intimidating for them, they can come here, can't they? They can. And haven't you got an olive oil masterclass, martini masterclass coming up? Olive oil. So we make an olive oil vodka with a great company. So we're going to be doing in October an olive oil and martini masterclass. So you come, you can make it yourself. I'm going to teach you all the tips and tricks, teach you to drink and eat. And thank you for both coming. This was so lovely. But also on your Instagram as well, there are so many hacks. There's so many gorgeous recipes and it's... Cocktail Carmen, yes, at Cocktail Carmen.

55:39Put the dot in it, the other one is not mine. But yes, you definitely come and try. I'm a big believer on try and figure it out and we can find something that you absolutely love. And look at you, both martini converts.

55:51Alan Carr:You know what, genuinely, I think it's been, I've loved hearing your story, the history of this, and I'm sure, yeah, you're going to go from strength to strength. You're both welcome any time you want. Oh, thank you so much. We can shower you with thousands of litres of booze. Do you know what? If I'm in the air and I want some D, I know where to come. Genuinely, it's been an absolute joy. Cocktail Carmen, everyone! Thank you. Thank you. That's it from us for this week. If you enjoyed what you've seen and heard, why not follow us at Bottoms Up Show wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, and we love hearing from you.

56:25Alan Carr:Whether you've got any questions about cocktails, wine dilemmas, any questions you've got for us in general, or your triumphs, we want to hear from you. BottomsUp at listen.co.uk is the email or slide into our DMs at BottomsUpShow. And as always, please drink responsibly. For more information, go to drinkaware.co.uk. Bottoms Up with Alan Carr and Lee Pierre is a platform media production. Bottoms Up!

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