Let’s forget about the second half of this drink’s name for a moment: It doesn’t remotely resemble a classic Martini. As for the first part, it’s said by some that its creator, bartender Douglas Ankrah, thought it was what a porn star would order; other stories hold that he was inspired by the smell of a stripper’s perfume.
In any case, this crowd-pleasing combination of vanilla and passion fruit, accompanied by a shot of sparkling wine, has spread far from its origins at London’s Townhouse bar in the early 2000s. Now adopted by bars the world over, this provocatively named cocktail has become a modern classic in its own right.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 ounces vanilla vodka
- 1/2 ounce passion fruit liqueur (such as Passoã or De Kuyper)
- 1 ounce passion fruit puree
- 1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 1/2 ounce vanilla simple syrup
- 2 ounces sparkling wine, chilled
- Garnish: 1/2 passion fruit, fresh
Steps
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Add all ingredients except sparkling wine into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously until well-chilled.
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Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
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Garnish with a passion fruit half.
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Serve with a sparkling wine sidecar (on the side).
WHY IS IT CALLED A PORN STAR MARTINI?
In his 2004 book Shaken & Stirred, creator Douglas Ankrah states that the drink was originally named the Maverick Martini, after a gentleman’s club he frequented in Cape Town, South Africa, before becoming more widely known as the Porn Star Martini.
In 2019, the Portman group, a U.K. alcohol industry trade group, issued a ruling that forced retailer Marks & Spencer to change the name of their canned iteration of the drink, after complaints about the suggestive nature of the original title. Subsequently, the tamer “Passion Star Martini” has been adopted by many brands seeking to avoid the cocktail’s more risqué associations.