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?
鈥� Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the cocktail bar, this Last Word chestnut sprang back to life. In 2012 when we published our anthology Will We Ever Speak Dolphin? we thought we had it nailed. Shaken vodka martinis make the drink taste less oily and because many vodkas made after the second world war were from potatoes rather than grain (today鈥檚 preference), and because potatoes produce a distinctly oily vodka, James Bond liked his shaken rather than today鈥檚 more acceptable stirred method. It appears, however, there鈥檚 more to it 鈥� Ed
鈥� It isn鈥檛 only potatoes that lead to oily vodkas. After the second world war, when grain was needed more to feed people than inebriate them, producers (legal and illegal) used any vegetable they could find. Root vegetables of many kinds 鈥� parsnips, carrots, beetroot and lots of others 鈥� make distinctly oily vodkas. All benefit from shaking when in a martini.
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Vodka can be distilled from almost anything. A producer in England makes milk vodka. I can鈥檛 vouch for its oiliness though, because I haven鈥檛 tried it.
Alan Hamley, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
鈥� I heard that Bond鈥檚 preference for shaking his martini rather than stirring it had nothing to do with chemistry. It was because shaking a cocktail involves only one hand, leaving the other free to grab his gun if any bad guys should suddenly appear.
Joseph Kenny, London, UK
鈥� The truth is that Bond really should curb his intake. In , doctors in Derby and Nottingham, both in the UK, had calculated Bond鈥檚 alcohol intake. Apparently he consumes on average the equivalent of five vodka martinis a day, or 92 units of alcohol a week. This makes him a 鈥減roblem drinker鈥� 鈥� one more likely to die from liver failure than lead a glamorous lifestyle, let alone hold a Walther PPK steady or manage as much sex as 鈥榮 books describe. In the novel From Russia With Love, Bond actually downs 50 units in one day. The researchers suggested he only preferred shaken martinis because he was already shaking as a result of his excessive boozing. They concluded that Bond should be 鈥渞eferred for further assessment of his alcohol intake鈥�.
鈥淎pparently James Bond consumes the equivalent of five vodka martinis every day鈥�
Still, while it鈥檚 an important point they are trying to make, the researchers surely understand that Bond is a fictional character. His level of alcohol intake is as unlikely as his ability to break into Fort Knox, fly a space shuttle or survive the more than 4500 bullets fired in his direction.
Charles Black, Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis
鈥� Although medical researchers have concluded that Bond drank too much, they are clearly forgetting that he was a spy and used clandestine methods. Surely everybody knows that secret service operatives in the field only pretend to consume vast quantities of alcohol.
They fake becoming drunk so that they are well prepared for when somebody starts to blab their megalomaniacal plans, or the guns come out. Check the potted plants and umbrella stands near where Bond was sitting and you鈥檒l probably find that they contain olives and lemon peel, and smell of vodka martini.
Karen Jarrold, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK
鈥� Apparently the third man to play Bond in the movies, Roger Moore, never uttered the words 鈥渟haken not stirred鈥� because he didn鈥檛 think he could do justice to the way the first Bond, Sean Connery, delivered them. Ironically, before his Bond days, while playing , Moore did use the phrase.
Colm Sheehy, Liverpool, UK