What is the significance of James Bond鈥檚 famous phrase 鈥渟haken, not stirred鈥�? Is there really a difference in the taste of a shaken vodka martini, as opposed to a stirred one? And if there is, why? (Continued)
In our quest to establish the difference between a shaken and a stirred martini, we published a reply from Anna Collins of Washington DC (8 May). She informed us that Bond ordered his martinis shaken so that the ice helped to dissipate any oil left over from the manufacture of vodka from potatoes 鈥� the base vegetable for many vodkas at the time Ian Fleming was writing the James Bond novels. Anna added that with the rise of higher-quality grain vodkas this method of preparation has become unnecessary. One reader decided to check out whether this really was the case 鈥� Ed
鈥� Anna Collins is correct, according to our blind trial. We bought two bottles of vodka, one grain, the other potato-based. First we tasted the vodkas. In the blind trial all six people in our sample said the potato vodka was oily, and the grain vodka wasn鈥檛. Then we made two vodka martinis using the potato vodka. One was stirred with ice, the other shaken with ice. The difference was quite distinct and in a blind tasting every one of the six drinkers characterised the shaken martini as being much less oily. But the martini had to be consumed quickly. If left to settle for 5 minutes or so, the shaken martini became oily again.
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Peter Simmons, London, UK
Our final advice is to go easy on the vodka martinis, whether shaken or stirred, for reasons explained in the answers to the following question 鈥� Ed