A Provocative Allure Even though this drink started out as the Maverick Martini which was named after Maverick’s Revue Bar, a gentleman’s club billed as the most sophisticated strip club in Cape Town, South Africa, the suggestive association (or...
A Provocative Allure
Even though this drink started out as the Maverick Martini which was named after Maverick’s Revue Bar, a gentleman’s club billed as the most sophisticated strip club in Cape Town, South Africa, the suggestive association (or lack of knowledge about the connection) wasn’t enough to boost sales. However, once renamed to the Pornstar Martini it became a huge hit.
So much so that in 2019 the Porn Star Martini became the number one selling cocktail in Great Britain with a 15.3 percent market share followed by the Mojito with 12.4 percent.*
Behind The Bar - How To Make The Pornstar Martini At Home
Original Porn Star Martini Drink Recipe
2 ¾ oz?-?80ml? Cariel vanilla vodka ½ oz?-?15ml? Passoa passionfruit liqueur flesh and seeds of 4 passionfruit 5 teaspoons? vanilla sugar 3 ? oz?-?100ml? Champagne 1 passionfruit, halved hard ice cubesHard shake all of the ingredients except for the Champagne, the halved passion fruit and 1 tsp of the vanilla sugar in a Boston shaker until frothed, then strain into Martini glasses (preferably chilled or frozen). Separately, fill two tall shot glasses with Champagne and dust the tops of the halved passionfruit with the sugar that was set aside earlier. Float the passion fruit halves inside the Martini glasses.
Serve with spoons so your guests can fish out the fruit and eat the flesh while alternating between drinking the cocktail and the palette cleansing Champagne as desired.†
History Of The Pornstar Martini
Ben:? Hey guys welcome to another episode of (Yachting International Radio’s) The Mess Mixologist (with Ben Maguire hosting) and it’s a really exciting one this week. We have got the inventor of the world-famous Porn Star Martini (Douglas Ankrah) on and interviewing today.‡ Developed in 2002 at the Townhouse in Knightsbridge, London, UK. It’s now become a global phenomenon. Let’s chat to Douglas and then I’m gonna go on to nervously recreate this cocktail afterwards. See you in a bit.
Ben:? Hey guys welcome to The Mess Mixologist and as mentioned previously, I’m extremely excited to have Douglas Ankrah with us today, the inventor of the world famous Pornstar Martini. Welcome to the show Douglas.
Douglas:? It’s a pleasure Ben, great of you to have me on the show. I really love it. Thank you.
Ben:? Thanks for coming on. So within the bartender and mixology scene, I mean you’re an extremely famous guy, your cocktails extremely famous globally, but for those that don’t know you and know that you’re the inventor of it tell us a bit more about you, where it came from, what was it called and the reason behind the events in it.
Douglas:? Well, the Porn Star Martini was created in a in a bar that I had called the Townhouse in 2002. I recall that day very, very, very well cuz you know trying to create a cocktail, I was so surprised, it’s not easy. You know you gotta have a concept. You gotta have a vessel. You gotta have a story behind any drink that you create as a mixologist.
Ben:? Right.
Douglas:? So I used to go to a strip club in Cape Town when I was writing in my book Cocktails: Shaken and Stirred.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? So when I came back, the place that I went to is called Mavericks in Cape Town. Okay. So when I got to London and released my book, I opened myself a bar called the Townhouse. One of my bars is called the Townhouse in Knightsbridge.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? So when I created the cocktail I wanted a cocktail that was kinda provoking so that young people could drink it and also not offend the elders. The Pornstar Martini has got two names. It’s called the Maverick Martini of the Strip club Mavericks in Cape Town and it’s called the Porn Star Martini if you’re young, you’re confident, you’re daring, you don’t care what you say you know.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? But unfortunately, Maverick didn’t take off.
Ben:? OK.
Douglas:? The name Maverick. The Porn Star became a huge hit in my bars and then traveled throughout the UK and globally. So I’m very proud, but the Pornstar Martini has three or four things going for it. One is the name.
Ben:? Yup.
Douglas:? Two. It’s the serve, the theater and the ritual. Like any other thing when it’s done well, it can be amazing. You know it can be really good, but you’ve gotta make it the way I create it and unfortunately a lot of bars tend not to do that. They take a shortcut for example.
Ben:? I mean, that’s one thing that I kind of get quite annoyed at in the market that I’m in specifically, which is gin mills, which was something that I wanted to talk to you about. So as the inventor of the drink and someone who who knows what it should taste like you know, he knows how it should be served. What are your views on the plethora of cheap, in my opinion, cheap nasty rip offs of your drink?
Douglas:? You know what, I’m ever so grateful that drink is very famous, you know. But, if you’re gonna copy me, copy me in style, don’t bastardize it. And there are just so many of them, from M & S (Marks & Spencer) to just everyone and honestly speaking as a mixologist, someone who knows how to make drinks and create drinks. I’m actually full of this comparison, its such a falsehood of the public buying into this rubbish. Horrible nasty drinks, because it’s not a Porn Star Martini that you are buying. There’s some really, really bad copies out there, you know. That’s why I brought out my two variants.
Ben:? I mean, we all wanna go on to talk about those as well cuz both are exciting in themselves too. Umm, and let’s take a step back. There’s champagne on the side.
Douglas:? Yup.
Ben:? Are you supposed to drink it before, after or does it go in the drink?
Douglas:? I’m glad you brought this up.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? It’s the debate of many many. It’s like they’re sitting at home at 3 o'clock in the morning. Listen up! Hey Doug, do we put the Champagne in or the Prosecco in? First and foremost Ben, it’s not Prosecco. I’m glad you said it’s Champagne. It’s Charlie all the way. Champagne all the way, you know. You’re not supposed to drink or pour the Champagne into the finished drink. What you do. I’ll show you the way you make it. I’ll show you how to make it pop in a minute.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? But you also have a Champagne as a palette cleanser, not in a shot. So you drink the Martini, but once in a while you have the Champagne as a palette cleanser, revert back to the to the Martini, then you know you carry on that way, but no way that you pour the Champagne into the the Martini glass onto the finished article.
Ben:? So as long as you’re using Champagne because it’s nice and dry against the slight sweetness of the Martini. If you go with Prosecco, it’s just sweet, sweet.
Douglas:? But there’s some good Proseccos out there, one, and number two, the Porn Star is very classy really. You know it was pretty nice. You know there’s a history of the story, the journey behind it. You know, like many other drinks, you know when I invented it not many bars were doing Champagne by the glass. You know the cheapest option was basically Prosecco. So the Pornstar kind of changed the game for Prosecco really.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? You know 20 years ago a lot of bars, a lot of restaurants were not carrying Prosecco. They were serving Champagne and they could not afford Champagne as a sideshow, you know. So in a way Porn Star elevated the name of Prosecco, I believe. I think if you think about it really, 20 years ago when you were like 5 years old, you know.
Ben:? You know. It’s scary. It’s scary.
Douglas:? But no one’s really thinking Prosecco that way, you know.
Ben:? I think we need to get on. I interviewed a girl called Becky Milton a couple of weeks ago and she wants to start a campaign about flat glasses of Prosecco being served in bars and I think she’d be good to get on to the cause to make sure that Champagne is served with the Pornstar from now on.
Douglas:? I mean I, I love champagne. I used to drink a bottle of Champagne every day and a shot of Bailey’s in my cappuccino coffee. Yeah! First you get up in the morning. Get to work. That’s when you get very creative Ben. You drink in the morning.
Ben:? Well I need to change my lifestyle I think to get a bit more creative. How did you get into mixology and bartending originally?
Douglas:? Right. I know I’m a bit gray and show my age a little bit there. I started about 35 years ago. You know it was the last thing I wanted to do is serve people. But WOW, people do that, you know? But you know I met a guy when I was a busboy in the Hard Rock (cafe). I was very fortunate. One day I was walking through Hyde Park. I was about seventeen and I saw a queue of beautiful girls queuing up to get into this restaurant and I’m like, Oh what’s that? So I went in there and asked for a job. He asked me when can you start? I can start tonight. So he asked me to come on the following day and I became a busboy. That’s my entrance into the event, into the game.
Ben:? A queue of beautiful women brought you into the bartending and mixology world?
Douglas:? Of course, what can I say?
Ben:? What an entrance. What an entrance. So you, I mean, you’ve gotten ridiculously famous in the industry. You’re working as a consultant now to bars, restaurants, night clubs. What’s the most exciting project you’d say you’ve worked on?
Douglas:? You know for me, I hate, I hate to kinda drop names, but I love the stuff that I was involved in. You know the Townhouse was pretty special to me. The LAB bar was incredible. You know the LAB bar was the bar that for 17 years basically paved the way to mixology. I miss LAB (London Academy of Bartending), but a few other bars like Shay and people like that, you know, kinda paved the way into what we enjoy and love today. I love the bars that I was involved in, but I’ve been involved with so many, many bars, you know.
Ben:? I thought I read a quote from you in kind of my research and it said that, “Whatever your budget is, double it.” Is that good advice for everybody?
Douglas:? Of course. Honestly, if you’re gonna go on a date with a girl and you’ve got 100 pounds, make it 200 pounds, you know? You need to do that. You need to have money to do things properly. You know?
Ben:? Yeah. Okay. So onto your first, your newest product, the incredible Pornstar Martini kits.
Douglas:? Right. This is the Original Porn Star Martini Kit.
Ben:? Curated by you inside so they arrive beautifully packaged. I’ve got a video that I’m gonna put on to our reels. I’m gonna get my apprentice to help me cuz she’s better with the technology than I am.
Douglas:? Of course.
Ben:? Here, I’m gonna try to get it on the camera (holds up a complete boxed kit for the viewers to see), it comes with a beautiful note from you.
Douglas:? Thank you. On a great paper.
Ben:? And then inside the instructions.
Douglas:? Iconography. Yeah, very much so.
Ben:? And then look at the the kit inside. So you’ve got the vanilla Grey Goose.
Douglas:? Well, so the kind people at Bacardi-Martini group gave me some Grey Goose Le Vanille, which I love. The original Pornstar was mixed with a different vodka, but Grey Goose is still so kind, so Grey Goose Le Vanille. A passion fruit syrup.
Ben:? And is this to your recipe?
Douglas:? Totally. So this kit serves two people, you know.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? So Grey Goose, passion fruit syrup, Passoã. That Passoã spirit is the only one in the country by the way. It’s 50ml of Passoã and serves two people in a homemade vanilla sugar.
Ben:? You know it looks incredible. They’re well packed.
Douglas:? Yeah. Give it a good shake before you put it back. Yeah, totally. So it’s, it comes well packed you know. Yeah, it’s looking pretty good.
Ben:? So where are these available for people because this is this is an incredible gift for I’d say 90% of people cuz everyone loves the Porn Star Martini. So where can I get all of this?
Douglas:? Well, they can get a hold of the kit on my website which is www dot original porn star martini dot com, Jerry’s in Soho, London, at Amazon UK and also Master of Malt.
Ben:? Okay, superb. And as well as the kit, you’ve got a ready to drink version as well don’t you?
Douglas:? Yeah, I have the P*Star, so what I’ve done is that I took the porn off to be more commercial. So I took the porn off and it’s Pstar passion fruit liqueur. This is a cocktail that’s ready to serve. So eventually, quick serve events, gifting parties and most of all rooftop bars. A lot of rooftop bars stuck with me. It’s up in Knightsbridge, you know in Mayfair and it’s well made. It’s made by the guys in DeKuyper in Holland for me.
Ben:? Okay, nice. Yeah, they make some fantastic liqueurs over there don’t they?
Douglas:? They do. Very much so.
Ben:? I think I’ve got a bottle of their cherry brandy somewhere behind my bar here.
Douglas:? Yeah, you know, but you can pick it up on Amazon and and things like that.
Ben:? You’re serving it as a spritz as well, aren’t you?
Douglas:? Well, I think this time around, I made it easier, you know, for bars, homes, especially as a spritz. So literally you pour certified in a wine glass. Top it up with Prosecco or Champagne or Cava or anything you know that is party.
Ben:? Awesome. Well, we’re doing it. We’re running a bar in the summer. Here we go. We’re gonna serve this as our signature serve in Essex this year out of our horse box.
Douglas:? Really? Essex? Partytown? The capital of the Pornstar Martini?
Ben:? Is it?
The capital of the Porn Star Martini must be Essex.
Douglas:? I’m not from Essex by the way, but the capital of the Porn Star Martini must be Essex really. Think about it. Every Esser loves them.
Ben:? What are the chances of getting you down for a guest appearance?
Douglas:? You got money? Oh, I can’t wait.
Ben:? I’m sure we can get some.
Douglas:? Definitely. I can make an appearance definitely, but honestly I don’t care where the cocktails end up. You know. I’m very proud. No matter what area, which barstool or which country. Not many people create a cocktail and take it to market. Often times drinks can’t do that for you without knowing, you know.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? I managed to kinda, you know, save the screen just to get this out (holds up bottle of P*Star) and also get the kit out.
Ben:? So, here’s a question for you. Have you ever been served a Porn Star Martini by someone that doesn’t know who you are?
Douglas:? Oh yes. I can’t name the bar or the person. It was a bar somewhere that’s kind of full of it, you know, and they brought me a Pornstar Martini. A very badly made one. I was with a friend of mine. She looked at me. I looked at her and we just started laughing. You know we drank it anyway and we just laughed, but you know it could have been a young guy trying to get into this by making that so you can’t criticize too much. She looked at me and I looked at. After a while, okay and it happens, sometimes you know not every bar will have the ingredients to make it properly.
Ben:? Okay. So if we flip that on its head then, where have you been or have you ever been where you’ve been served from and been really impressed at it coming out to you?
Douglas:? I’m the most difficult person to impress you know. Honestly speaking, when it comes to drinks and certain things I’m very anal about it. Not really, you know. I’ve been to some great bars, but they don’t make it like I’ll make it, you know. It’s, I haven’t been to a bar whereby (and I love Porn Star Martinis by the way) when it’s made well. It’ll drink good. Drinks made well, it could be amazing. But, not really.
Ben:? Never? Never impressed with someone who’s… that’s sad.
Douglas:? No. I’m a difficult customer mate.
Ben:? I think we need the country to up it’s game on Porn Star Martinis in general.
Douglas:? Of course, I mean it’s been on Coronation Street (a British soap opera). It’s been many, many shows you know and people often times forget that someone came up with an idea. Someone thought about the serve. Someone thought about the ingredients. Someone thought about everything, you know. It wasn’t just someone that, no, it takes time to do things properly, you know and often times people will bypass your drink or to make it much more accessible to everyone. But, if you want a real deal, you go back to the Pornstar Marini and also the (Pstar) liqueur.
Ben:? Yeah perfect. So if you could have a Porn Star Martini with anyone alive or dead who would it be and why?
Douglas:? My God man your questions are so hard at times mate. You know I love and adore Sidney Poitier, the actor. He’s one of my favorite artists, crossed many boundaries and I just like him. He’s very, very debonair as a man, you know, I like him. A woman I would love, love, love to dine or have a Pornstar Martini with is Marilyn Monroe. It’s two icons and Martin Luther King baby, you know and my father too, he’s in my life.
Ben:? I knew there’d be an attractive lady in there somewhere considering how we got into it. I’m not surprised you kind of slid Marilyn Monroe in.
Douglas:? I did. Of course, I cannot have just men. Come on mate. But on a good note, you know, if you have Sidney, Marilyn, my father and Martin Luther King, and also maybe you could have Iman there or Naomi Campbell. You know.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? So we’ve got three girls, three guys. We could talk one-to-one great, you know and they’re all very iconic in their heydays and I like that.
Ben:? What a party that would be.
Douglas:? Actually, no. I also have John Lennon and Bob Marley. Two of my biggest, biggest heroes, you know.
Ben:? I mean it’s just going to who could you have it with the who wouldn’t be attending? I mean it’s just gonna look like a huge party now.
Douglas:? Really? I’m sorry. I can’t do this by the way you’re gonna get me in trouble. I guess who…
Ben:? So what’s next for you then? What’s on the agenda?
Douglas:? They call me a passion fruit king you know, so I’m working on a couple of ideas. I’m working on a on a P*Star spritz canned at the moment.
Ben:? Okay.
Douglas:? Yeah. So hopefully by late summer, maybe. It’s sponsored to be canned, ready to go to festivals, hand them out. You know, yeah.
Ben:? Perfect. So I’m gonna go on to make this once we’re off camera (holds up Pornstar Martini Kit). If I open it up one more time, can you talk me through and I’ll be going through your shots for everyone else there? What is the perfect way to make this drink?
Douglas:? Really? Who are you gonna make it for? Yourself or your girlfriend, your lover or your partner. Who are you making it for? Your wife?
Ben:? I’m actually making this for the apprentice in the office. It’s a bank holiday tomorrow so me and her are gonna share a couple.
Douglas:? You’re gonna make it now or you’re gonna make it tomorrow?
Ben:? I’m gonna make it late this afternoon so I’m gonna do it now Douglas. I’ll do no more work for this afternoon.
Douglas:? I know. So what you do is that I mean before you start, I put fifteen mil about fifteen ml of water in a mixing tin before you start or mixing glass.
Ben:? Okay.
Douglas:? Yeah and pour the ingredients accordingly. So the vodka.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? It’s very, very simple, you know. The vodka, the syrup, the Passoã and the homemade vanilla sugar. And sugar can be sweet, but if you make it with two people, maybe two teaspoons would be ideal.
Ben:? Okay.
Douglas:? So it’s not too sweet, you know. But when you put water in the syrup, it opens up the syrup okay. And if you shake it very, very hard you get a froth on top.
Ben:? Perfect.
Douglas:? So you gotta shake it so hard that…
Ben:? I’m gonna…
Douglas:? Go ahead.
Ben:? I’m gonna send you a photo. but I’m worried about being really judged.
Douglas:? No, no, no, don’t be silly. Come on. I’m not gonna judge you. I don’t do that, but make sure that when you serve it that you have a teaspoon, so if you fish out the flesh of the passion fruit, eat that. So the Porn Star Martini, if you can check out the iconography, you fish out the fresh passion fruit at the end.
Ben:? Yeah.
Douglas:? This is how you do it so it becomes like a talking point if you’re in a bar and I be like what’s he doing what’s he drinking you know. so if you follow that iconography, it’s very, very simple. But if you’re shaking make sure you use proper ice and shake well so you get the froth on top.
Ben:? Yeah. Right. I’m looking forward to giving that a go.
Douglas:? So send us some images please mate.
Ben:? So to finish up, remind us of where we can get these and what are your social media profiles so people can give you a follow.
Douglas:? Guys, please follow me to check out my page. Please find me on www dot original pornstar martini dot com and my handles for Instagram are pstarliqueurofficial or originalpsm. So hit me up. Also check out my FB pages.
Ben:? Well, Douglas thanks ever so much for coming on to the show. It’s been enlightening and fun and I look forward to meeting you in person once we can once we can socialize again a bit more.
Douglas:? We’ve got about a month and a half, 2 months to go, so let’s pray and you know, make sure that everything works out well.
Ben:? Nice. Stay safe and I’ll catch up with you soon.
Douglas:? And don’t forget to send the pictures by the way. Don’t cheat, okay.
Ben:? No I’ll get it. I’m gonna send you the pictures. I’ll send you the pictures. I’ll see you later on.
Ben:? Well, thank you for joining us Douglas and I hope everyone else enjoyed that as much as I did. I think one more to take away from that is don’t settle for bad Porn Star Martinis anybody. Right, so time to make the cocktail. Let me try to do as much justice as I can. I don’t think I can go too far wrong because I’ve got the kit available on Amazon dot co dot uk, original pornstar martini dot com, Masters of Malt and Jerry’s in Soho, London.
Ben:? Let’s open it up. So we’ve got a Grey Goose La Vanille. The passion fruit puree to Douglas’s recipe. Passoã liqueur and his vanilla sugar. Well, let’s put that away. We’ve got Douglas’s instructions. I do not want to get this wrong cuz I promise you I’m gonna send him that photo. Let’s get started.
Ben:? 50 ml of the Grey Goose vodka. Now, he specifically states we put ice in last for this. So that’s what we shall do Douglas. In it goes. 25 ml of the Passoã. Oh, smells good. 25 ml of the fruit syrup, It’s got a nice little label on. Let’s take that off. I tell a lie, it’s 50 ml of the fruit syrup. We’ve got two teaspoons of the vanilla sugar. Be careful with this. Oh, smells cracking. Oh, no. I’ve already put the ice cube in here. In goes the ice. Lid on it, so shake for 30 seconds. I’m not gonna make you wait that long. I’ll shake for 30 seconds but cut it out. And there we go, beautifully cold and shaken. Top off. Oh, it smells delicious. Alright, let’s strain that into our cold Martini glass. The beautiful vibrant orange colors there. There we go. Top it off with half a passion fruit. Pop that in the top and then you’ve got Douglas Ankrah’s perfect Pornstar Martini. Cheers guys. Oh, that’s good. A little champagne is a palette cleanser. Never mix the two. Enjoy and we’ll see you next week on The Mess Mixologist.
References
* - The 2019 1st Quarter Mixed Drinks Report by CGA referenced above also listed the #3 thru #10 most popular cocktails in Great Britain at the time as the Long Island Iced Tea with 11.7%, Sex on the Beach 9.6%, Daiquiri 6.3%, Woo Woo 5.5%, Espresso Martini 3.8%, Martini 3.3%, Pina Colada 2.9% and the gin-based Collins at 2.2%.
† - Douglas Ankrah, Cocktails Shaken and Stirred 3rd Edition (London: Kyle Cathie Limited, 2007), 51. Print. Also included in the earlier 2004 and 2005 editions.
‡ - R.I.P. Douglas Ankrah – founder of the London Academy of Bartending and inventor of the Pornstar Martini died on August 16th, 2021 at the age of 51 years old.
