My mother texted to say that my father’s martinis were better than mine. It turns out that dad had hijacked her phone and was attempting to taunt me. Nonetheless he claimed to have developed my technique a little further to improve the quality of the drink and was quietly confident that his new secret method made his drinks better than mine. He is very creative but also very competitive so I’ll see what he has to offer

My intelligence sources indicate that his additional technique is simply to use two slices of lemon peel rather than one to squeeze lemon oil into the glass prior to pouring the drink, so as to add extra zest. I’m on to you dad.

I actually sometimes do this if the slice becomes torn or excessively damaged while squeezing out the oil. I don’t want to garnish the drink with a ragged piece of lemon so I’ll take a new slice, squeeze it a little more gently then serve.

To increase the lemon flavour I also sometimes add a tiny dash of lemon oil from a bottle. I dip a toothpick into the bottle then rub a thin line (like a scratch) along the inside of the glass prior to pouring the drink. I like it lemony.