The Marvellous Martini Fountain

Recipe: Martini Fountain Recipe »

Serve martinis in serious style with a DIY martini fountain. This is the ultimate party centrepiece for New Year's Eve or any celebration. It's perfect for large groups, keeps drinks flowing and lets guests help themselves. Set out olives, cocktail onion, zest and olive brine so everyone can customise their martinis to how they like it without you playing bartender all night!

About This Martini Fountain

This martini fountain is a spectacular way to serve martinis for New years or for a party. The fountain mixes up the martini and then your guests can help themselves to a martini and add olives, cocktail onions or the olive brine to make their own martinis! I first saw this on join_jules on Instagram and fell in love with the idea!

My friend Queen Viv described a martini as, "Designed for vertical liftoff!". That is, a martini is a strong drink that is pretty much all alcohol which is perfect for a martini fountain. She then added later, "You should never drink more than two!" with a playfully stern look on her face.

I promise that this martini fountain is not only visually appealing but also allows guests to help themselves so you don't have to spend time mixing and pouring cocktails. This recipe makes 12 martinis!

Video How To Make A Martini Fountain

Video: DIY Martini Fountain

Ingredients For Martini Fountain

Gin - Use your favourite gin. I used a Hickson House Distilling Co. Seven Spice Gin that uses native botanicals like native lemongrass, mountain pepper leaf, aniseed myrtle, finger lime, wattleseed, bush tomato and lemon myrtle. You can also use Vodka like Grey Goose. Make sure that the gin or vodka is chilled as we won't be shaking the cocktails with ice.

Vermouth - Go for a dry Vermouth like Noily Prat or Dolin. Also make sure it is chilled.

Olives - Namely, pitted olives. Some people like olives stuffed with cheese or pimentos. Laura has a capsicum allergy so we stuck with regular giant pitted olives.

Pickled cocktail onions - These are found at the supermarket and transform a martini into a Gibson cocktail!

Lemon zest - Lemon zest and olives are the traditional garnishes of a martini.

Tips For Making Martini Fountain

1 - First fill the bowl with the drink and then turn on (having said that, I very briefly turn it on for a second just to check it is working!).

2 - Avoid using 100% carbonated drinks (champagne, sparkling wine) in a fountain. If you want to use some carbonation, use 2 parts still to 1 part carbonated beverage. Add the carbonated drink slowly once the fountain is running and on.

3 - Do not use fruit juice with pulp or cocktails with pieces of fruit like sangria as these bits will clog the fountain.

4 - Do not add ice to the drink fountain. It will stop working! It is best to make sure the drinks are cold. You can add a tiny bit of very crushed ice but there is a chance that your fountain may stop working if you add too much and it's a pain to get it working again as you have to pull it apart and take out the cocktail so I would avoid this! Instead having an ice bucket and tongs ready for people to add ice to their glass.

5 - Chill glasses to ensure that the cocktail is cold when you drink it.

6 - If you want to make a martini for one it's simple: mix 75ml/2.5flozs Gin or Vodda and 15ml or 0.5oz of Vermouth. Shake with ice and serve with olives and a lemon curl.

7 - This is the drink fountain that I used.

Other delicious martini cocktails for New Years to try next are: Chocolate Espresso Martini, Espresso Martini and Ferrero Rocher Martini.

Martini Fountain Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 6 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Makes: 12 martinis

Ingredients Needed

• 750ml/25oz bottle gin, chilled
• 180ml/6flozs Vermouth, chilled
• 600g/1.3lbs pitted olives
• 250g/8.8ozs pickled onions
• Bitters and orange or lemon zest to serve

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - GARNISHES Drain the olives but reserve the brine keeping them in a jug for people to add to their cocktails. Place the olives in the second or larger plate on the fountain. Drain the cocktail onions and add these to the smaller plate on the fountain above the olives. Add bitters and orange or lemon zest on the side along with the olive brine and cocktail sticks so that people can mix their martinis to their personal preferences.

Step 2 COCKTAIL - Pour the chilled Gin and Vermouth into the main bowl of the drink fountain. Add some large ice cubes and turn the fountain on!

Personal Note

I made this Martini Fountain for Friendsmas. We didn't make it for Christmas with the Elliotts because they don't drink much alcohol and if they do drink, they prefer cocktails with mixers or soda added to them. But Laura, LimaLimaDelta, Queen Viv and Mr NQN all enjoy martinis.

Like a wedding or event planner, I have a running sheet with times that everything has to be done on the day. But this year I was running late, like really late. I think I made one too many dishes for Christmas and I should have asked Laura to make something because she's a great cook.

I wanted to have the martini fountain running and ready by the time Laura and LimaLimaDelta arrived. It's actually ludricrously easy, all you do is add a bottle of gin and 3/4 of a cup of Vermouth into the fountain and the motion of the fountain mixes it all up.

I added it all in and turned on the button. Nothing. "Whaaat?" I exclaimed. I had tested this out 3 days ago and it worked fine. "Are you sure you put it together properly?" I asked Mr NQN. "Did you look at the instructions?" He had already had a tantrum that morning about raspberries but he assured me that it was all ok. Then the doorbell rang and it was Laura and LimaLimaDelta who arrived exactly at 2pm on the dot.

"My martini fountain won't work!" I cried - bless them as they sprang into action. LimaLimaDelta and Mr NQN immediately worked on troubleshooting the martini fountain. They drained the cocktail out and then pulled it apart while Laura and I were prepping the rest of the food.

There was a lot of discussion, hands on chins and looking at the fountain from all angles. The power was coming through as there was a light on. Then they started to hear a little noise coming out of it as LimaLimaDelta did something. "Keep doing that, but more!" I said as that was the noise of the fountain starting up. And when it was tightened up, the fountain roared to life in its most spectacular form dispensing martinis to all the party guests. And Laura loved this so much that she is doing her own martini fountain for her Christmas party.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like martinis? And do you ever make a running sheet for parties?