The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet", and E. B.

Can you order a martini on the rocks?

You could technically order a martini on the rocks (aka, on ice) as you would other cocktails, but why would you want to? “Straight up or on the rocks would probably be the most common request to a drink that is thoroughly defined by how it's drunk, so much so that it has a glass named after it.

Do you shake a martini on the rocks?

Martinis, Manhattans, Old-Fashioneds — basically any booze-forward drink should be stirred. Stirring these drinks produces “a silky mouth-feel with precise dilution and perfect clarity,” Elliot says.