What's The Best Type Of Alcohol For A Classic Lychee Martini?

The classic martini is a stylish, two-ingredient cocktail consisting mainly of gin or vodka and vermouth. If you want to order a martini like you know what you're doing, take note of what it means to order a martini dry or wet. The original martini, which dates back to the late 19th century, was made with gin as the base spirit. However, vodka martinis appeared in the mid-20th century and grew in popularity, partly due to James Bond's preference for them in Ian Flemings 1953 book "Casino Royale." Vodka also became the spirit of choice in martinis in the 1980s and '90s when flavorful variations such as the appletini, espresso martini, and cosmopolitan became popular. It was during this time that the lychee martini was invented, although its exact origins are somewhat murky.

A lychee martini is a light and sweet cocktail typically made with vodka, lychee juice, dry vermouth, and lychee fruit for garnish. Due to its neutral flavor, vodka is more commonly used to make the fruity martini, however, using gin is also a possibility. The botanical and citrusy notes of gin are more forward-facing than the flavorless vodka, but some find that it pairs well with the sweet, slightly tart, floral taste of lychee. In short, if you enjoy the piney, herbal taste of gin, by all means opt for a gin lychee martini. However, if you prefer the lychee flavor to be at the forefront, vodka is the optimal choice for your cocktail.

While lychee has been cultivated in China for thousands of years, lychee martinis are a relatively recent invention in the U.S. Its difficult to pinpoint the inventor of lychee martinis, however, like other popular sweet martini variations, they largely appeared on the U.S. bar scene in the early 1990s. Its appearance in the U.S. is often credited to Japanese sake bar Decibel, which opened in New York in 1993, and its owner, Bon Yagi. Yagi's brother was serving lychee martinis at his Decibel location in Tokyo and adding them to the New York bar just made sense. Other New York Asian fusion restaurants and bars serving lychee martinis during this time included Southeast Asian restaurant Vong and French-Vietnamese restaurant Indochine.

Lychee is native to southern China but is grown commercially in other subtropical regions, such as India and Vietnam. The fruit is small and round with a bumpy, bright red shell, inside of which is the translucent, edible flesh and a single seed. Lychee is often eaten fresh in Southeast Asian countries that have lychee trees, while it's typically sold canned in mainstream grocery stores in the U.S. Due to its use as a tasty cocktail ingredient, some might argue that lychee is a canned fruit you should always have in your pantry. You can easily make a lychee martini at home with canned lychees, such as Four Elephants premium lychees in syrup, or a syrup such as Torani lychee syrup.