Do you yourself and the world a favor and forget about the most-clichéd line in drinking history, before checking out the video below from Esquire TV's The Mix. In it Shawn Thomas breaks down the history of the martini — "Beatles of Bar Drinks" — in plain-and-simple terms, including how it started as a very different, very contentious drink called the Martinez. The story goes back to the early 1860s when a miner in Martinez, CA, walked into a bar after a hard day of digging and asked for some boozy refreshment. The bartender made him a Martinez cocktail, "a blend of Italian vermouth, Old Tom gin, bitters, sugar syrup, and maraschino liqueur." By the time the miner got through a few these, he could no longer pronounce the "Z," and thus, the "martini" was born. Or so goes one legend. Watch the video for a couple other takes on the origin and a tutorial on how to make a perfect Martinez.

We'll let you be the judge on whether or not it's better than Bond's drink of choice.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Eric Vilas-Boas Assistant Editor Eric Vilas-Boas is a former editor at Esquire, where he managed the magazine's social media accounts, helped edit the website, and has written stories about comic books, martinis, and Ernest Hemingway's hamburger acumen.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io