Martha Stewart's Go-To Vodka Contains A Piece Of Bison Grass
The most common drinks served at cocktail bars around the nation ascended to their ubiquity for a reason. More often than not, classic denotes quality, and as such, you don't necessarily want to mess around with the recipe of a classic cocktail. Nevertheless, many innovative mixological minds have experimented with long-standing formulas. While a Negroni recipe generally calls for gin, celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson has a variation on the drink that swaps in bourbon. A true martini master knows that the drink also traditionally calls for gin, but Martha Stewart — who mixed the drink up on TikTok — uses vodka in her recipe, and that's not where her particular preferences end.
One way that distillers can experiment with classic flavors without completely altering the original recipes is by using flavor infusion. Gin, one of the spirits most commonly associated with Martha Stewart's beloved martini, gets its trademark floral flavor by infusing grain alcohol with juniper berries and other spices. The vodka brand that is Martha Stewart's go-to when making a martini also has a plant infusion, but it isn't something that one would typically associate with a delicious cocktail.
Martha Stewart's specific spirit preference
A classic martini recipe will call for your spirit of choice, either vodka or gin, as well as vermouth, and an accoutrement, like a citrus peel or an olive. In a recent TikTok, Martha Stewart showed off her take on the timeless cocktail, which she appropriately titled The Martha-tini. The cocktail, which is available at The Bedford by Martha Stewart, her restaurant in the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, will cost you the considerable price of $22.95, but it will come with a martini shaking show from your server.
@marthastewart My Martha-tini is always shaken (not stirred), garnished with a Meyer lemon peel, and served in an ice-cold martini glass. Come try it at The Bedford – cheers! #martini #cocktails #cocktailrecipes #thebedfordlasvegas
The primary way that Stewart's cocktail differentiates itself from most martini recipes is its inclusion of a specific kind of liquor — Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka. The bison grass in question goes by the scientific name Hierochloe odorata, but it is also known as sweet grass and vanilla grass, due to its sweet scent and flavor profile. The grass infusion gives the vodka a nutty, floral kick, and also lends the spirit its faintly yellowish hue. Żubrówka enjoyed stateside is primarily produced by Polmos Białystok in Poland. Stewart is of Polish heritage, so the vodka's inclusion in her signature cocktail is fitting.
Żubrówka was a controlled substance
The chemical component in bison grass that contributes to the unique flavor profile of Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka is coumarin. This chemical may be the main reason why Martha Stewart's preferred vodka brand isn't more recognizable to American consumers. The late '70s saw the FDA prohibiting the sale of Żubrówka in the United States. Coumarin itself was banned in 1954. As ABC News notes, it is precisely this compound that has caused the FDA to warn against purchasing Mexican vanilla, which is not made from vanilla beans at all but is rather an extraction of the tonka tree.
You might be aware of Martha Stewart's incarceration, but the culinary celebrity wasn't incriminating herself by posting her Martha-tini on TikTok. Żubrówka's manufacturer has been selling an altered formula of the vodka that is free of coumarin to U.S. distributors for well over a decade.
At the end of the video, Stewart says that the Martha-tini can also be enjoyed with the much more ubiquitous Tito's vodka. Recently, Martha Stewart and Tito's teamed up for a DIY dry January ad, wherein the celebrity chef extolled the myriad non-drinking possibilities of vodka.