The Correct Way To Drink A Pornstar Martini

There's usually not a right or wrong way to drink a cocktail. You should be able to drink what you want, how you want it — unless the person who created the cocktail has very specific rules on how it should be consumed. In this case, the drink is the pornstar martini, and the inventor is bartender Douglas Ankrah.

Just in case you've never heard of this raunchily-named drink, the pornstar martini is a modern classic cocktail made up of vanilla vodka, passion fruit, and vanilla sugar, served with a sidecar of prosecco. Ankrah, who passed away in 2021, first created it for the opening menu of his bar, The Townhouse, in London in 2003. Ankrah told PUNCH that he invented the cocktail in "15 minutes or less." Even though it only took him a short amount of time, Ankrah created a cocktail with staying power. The pornstar martini was an instant success and continues to be featured on cocktail menus worldwide. And contrary to other cocktails that include sparkling wine as an ingredient, the prosecco should never be added directly to the pornstar martini, but in fact, sipped alongside it.

Despite its controversial name, the now-infamous pornstar martini is basically a fruity vodka sour, served in a fun and playful way. Vanilla vodka is the base spirit of the cocktail. (According to PUNCH, Ankrah didn't have a strong preference as to the brand of vodka.) The drink uses both passion fruit liqueur and passion fruit purée, which gives it tartness and a sumptuous texture. In Ankrah's original recipe, vanilla sugar is employed as the sweetener, made from a combination of vanilla pods and granulated sugar. The cocktail is shaken and served up in a stemmed glass, ideally an oversized V-shaped martini glass, then garnished with half a fresh passion fruit. The pièce de résistance is a shot of prosecco served alongside the drink.

In his 2004 book "Shaken & Stirred," Ankrah says that the initial name of the cocktail was the Maverick Martini, in honor of a gentleman's club he liked to frequent in Cape Town, South Africa. The moniker eventually changed to the pornstar martini because Ankrah "thought it was something a pornstar would drink" (via The Buyer). In either case, it's a martini truly in name only, akin to the Espresso Martini or the Appletini; but that doesn't matter. The pornstar martini is still ridiculously popular: It was the fifth most-Googled cocktail in the U.K. in 2021 and has inspired many variations in its hometown of London, and all over the world.

Ever since the very first pornstar martini was served in the early aughts, it was presented with two drinking vessels: one containing the cocktail, the other with prosecco. "People think they're getting two drinks in one," Ankrah told PUNCH.

The correct way to drink a pornstar martini is to start by eating the garnish. Ankrah instructs the imbiber to spoon out the flesh from the fresh passion fruit floating atop the cocktail, then to alternate sips of the cocktail and the bubbly. The prosecco sidecar serves as a palate cleanser, not a chaser to be taken before or after consuming the cocktail. So while you sip on your 'tini, you can shoot the sheriff, but not the deputy (or the prosecco).

Equally as important, according to Ankrah, is that the prosecco not be mixed into the cocktail, either by the bartender or by the consumer. The pornstar martini is not a choose-your-own-adventure cocktail, but a composed drinking experience. "Whatever you do, don't mix the two together," warned Ankrah (via The Bartenders Broadcast Network). "What you do is you drink the martini and once in a while you clean your palate with the prosecco." Who would've thought a cocktail with such a risqué name would need to come with an instruction manual? The more you know!