Why does James Bond insist on having his martinis “shaken, not stirred?” Does a stirred martini taste any different than a shaken one?
A shaken martini is colder and “better” by most people’s standards, but it’s sort of cloudy, because you shake it up.
A stirred martini looks very cool when you drink it, but it isn’t as good.
Therefore, when Bond orders his martini shaken, not stirred, he conveys that he is a) knowledgeable about drinks and other social niceties and b) more interested in quality than showiness.
–John
Among martini afficianadoes there is a great deal of debate and division on the matter of shaken or stirred. Some of the issues invloved are how watered down the drink gets, the cloudiness, the rate of cooling, and the idiotic theory that shaking bruises the gin. While I have had several martinis, I have never actually tried having them stirred, so I can’t really provide my own perspective on the matter.
I think that stirred used to be the default, so if one desired shaken, it was necessary to specify. It seems, from my personal experience, that the standard now is to serve them shaken, so one might look a bit foolish these days quoting Sean Connery.
I’ve heard the joke that in a survival kit, the Army provided the necessary ingredients (gin, vermouth, ice, shaker, skewer, olives) for a martini. The idea was that no matter how stranded one was, the instant one started to make a martini a stranger would show up and tell that person the “correct” way to make one. The directions given in that book insisted that the best way involved shaking the martini in an old fashioned shaker next to the right ear at waltz time for ten seconds, just to give you an idea of the way some people feel about the issue.
You also have to take into account that martini drinkers are inherently an odd bunch. Very odd.
In my bartending days, I invariably had my share of martini drinkers. Each one more goofy than the one before.
They somehow believe a correlation can be made between the number of foolish mixing directions and the quality of the drink. The more, the strange, the better.
Shaken, stirred, three olives on a single wooden toothpick (I’ve had it happen), one warm drop of vermouth only, added to the drink after it’s been chilled, two pickled onions for every one olive, and I’ll have two olives please, on and on and on.
At first, I was actually interested in finding out whether or not there was some discernable difference in all this nonsense, but I soon gave up.
What always made me laugh, however, was listening to this often long, drawn out, and heavily practiced request for a martini, followed up with the look of a deer in the headlights when asked what kind of gin they wanted- “Ahh, whatever, it doesn’t matter.” “Sure thing bub”.
I’d carefully construct their drink, made in a glass shaker, not metal, with a certain number of ice cubes, please, with the olives in it first, thank you, and proceed to grab the plastic unbreakable bottle of Kamkatcha gin. Kamkatcha gin is best used for unclogging a sink, not drinking. But the customer would smile ‘knowingly’ and happily as I finally delivered it to them.
Follow this piece of advice and actually impress someone, drop the mixing routine and actually request a gin that isn’t being consumed at that very moment by the guy around the corner under the bridge.
Well, not me. I order “a martini”, and when they ask what gin, request the gin I want (looking at the selection behind the bar to see what options I have). While I place great importance on appearances, I would rather trust the bartender than try to appear as if I really can tell how many ice cubes the damn thing was made with. I feel pretensious enough just ordering one (although last time, the next guy got a Remy Martin VSOP, so I didn’t look too bad in comparison) without having to add bizarre requirements to it.
Mostly, I mix them myself, though. If you care, here is my general method:
One handful of ice, plus one ice cube in my shaker
Fill a little over the top of the ice with gin
A little bit of vermouth
Meanwhile, coat the glass with a little bit of vermouth
Shake for about ten seconds
Strain into glass
If I was good, there is just enough room for three olives on a skewer
However, the most important thing is the gin. I like Bombay Sapphire, but Tanqueray No. 10 is about as good. Next is the ratio of gin to vermouth, which I like around 8:1 or so (I simply trust my instincts). Also, the brand of vermouth is kind of important. I have Noilly Pratt.
Anyways, when it comes to ordering in a bar, I think it’s silly to specify a brand of vermouth, which is the third most important thing to me, so anything else obviously is too silly. I don’t bother specifying the ratio either, as I think the current style is about what I like. I would (in general terms) if I thought I was going to get something else.
Just out of curiosity, is Kamkatcha Gin better or worse than Mr. Boston?
Before this gets on to the inevitable slope to IMHO (Bombay Sapphire, half a cap of vermouth, one drop of Cointreau, green olive, stir in glass pitcher whilst facing due east BTW) can we get the James Bond thing straight? Certainly in the films he asks for “shaken not stirred”, but how about the books?
I thought I’d seen something to the effect that “he said ‘stirred, not shaken’ in the books”, so I looked here and here and am now a little puzzled. Anyone got the books?
picmr
Ian Fleming write the phrase simply to make Bond look cool. “Shaken, not stirred” makes no difference in the taste of a martini, and I suspect the no one specified thish until after Bond became popular.
Best I can offer in that direction is that seem to recall that Playboy did an article about Bond a while back, and I think it said that the “shaken not stirred” thing was the same in both. However, I wasn’t exactly reading it for the articles, so I’m not too sure of that.
BTW, I did the IMHO thread about martinis and it died pretty quickly. I guess the SDMB isn’t exactly a haven for martini freaks.
Coincidentally, Straight Dope Staff have recent written this up for a Staff Report, which should appear in about two weeks.
Bartenders and wait staff sometimes also make assumptions on their customers based on the way they like their martinis. I don’t like the things much myself, preferring scotch or bourbon. My parents love martinis though. My dad would always order them thusly, “Two dry Beefeater martinis, one with an olive, one with a twist.” Almost always they would deliver the one with the olive to my dad and the one with the twist to my mom. Then they would switch. I think this is because they assume for some reason that a woman is more likely to want the twist. It could be the order in which the drinks were ordered, but being old school, of course he ordered my mom’s first.
CK-
I’ll be interested in hearing your take on the subject.
waterj2-
Can’t say that I’ve ever heard of Mr. Boston’s gin myself. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s local to your area, cheap, and presumably, rot gut liquor- much like Kamkatcha gin. It may sound like it came from afar and is somehow exotic, but it was likely distilled in your neighbors back yard. Nasty stuff
Besides, I don’t know about you, but any kind of liquor that has as their main selling point a ‘Shatter-Proof’ bottle, has got to be bad. If your more worried about breaking the bottle of gin when you fall flat on your face drunk, you’re not too concerned about the hue and contrast of the competing essence.
The point of my first post was explain the tendency of the martini drinker to be more obsessed with the ordering process and routine of making the drink, not necessarily what makes it important- the ingredients.
Ordering, not drinking, a martini is often where they find enjoyment. Odd, but its what I’ve seen.
In addition, to clarify my earlier post, when you don’t specify the kind of liquor you want at the bar, you will always get what’s on the rail- cheap shit. I’ll toss and throw the drink around the bar with all the flair of Tom Cruise on crack, but it means nothing when I’m using the cheapest of the cheap gin. It’s this contrast that I always find funny.
Me, personally? I don’t drink martinis all that often, but when I do, and I’m out to impress someone, there’s no beating a Cadenhead’s Old Raj Dry martini. A Scottish gin, and damn hard to find. But it’s worth it when you do, it’s like drinking crystal.
Martinis…I don’t know.
But my Bud is definately better stirred, not shaken.
I don’t like gin. Doesn’t matter which brand.
I used to drink vodka martinis though.
My recipe:
Double shot of vodka. Pass glass within eight inches of open bottle of vermouth. Two olives please. Shaken?? stirred?? After two drinks Who the Hell cares.
And how many martinis did YOU have for breakfast, Chuck? <grin>
Bond was ordering martinis in his patented smug and irritating way from Day One…his appearance in the first novel, CASINO ROYALE. I believe he wanted something gag-worthy…two measures of some sort of gin, one measure of vodka, and a measure of Kina Lillet (sp?).
I prefer mine shaken, as my primary consideration is a good chilled cocktail, and I don’t give a shit how cloudy it is.
kamchatka is a vodka made in the kamchatka region of siberia it is the cheapest booze availible in penna. it is made from grain is almost as good to drink as turpintine as for the plastic shatterpfoof bottle the reason behind that is less damaged product in transit not to mention less weight ( which = cheaper delivery costs) only a few years ago it seemed as though plastic was going to be the way of the future but too many people were complaining of tasting the plastic bottle as oppossed to the clean taste of glass imho, jeff
After working in a resturant, and doing extensive research on alcohol to learn how to “upsell” a drink, I remember coming across a source saying that marinies are to be stirred only. Not shaken. It even pointed out that James Bond has been doing this wrong the whole time. So maybe the shaken idea came about due to Bond. Unfortunatly I can’t remember the source, it may have been webtender.com or a search for gin on about.com. Anyone else heard this?
Sheesh, don’t any of you get it?
Bond is the essence of machismo. He rarely, if ever got thoroughly attached (in the emotional sense) to any woman in the Fleming novels. (And if he did, Ian promptly had her snuffed.) Can you see it coming?
Bond might be “shaken” from all of the daredeviltry, but he is never “stirred” by the throes of marital pursuit!
Now that we’ve cleared that up.
C Note, you are so right! Most people wouldn’t know good gin if it bit them on the liver. Some acceptable gins are:
[li]Bombay[/li][li]Bombay Sapphire[/li][li]Boodles[/li][li]Doornkat[/li][li]Tanquerey (in a pinch)[/li][li]Beefeater (in a pinch)[/li]
That said, I prefer my Martinis so dry that I fart dust. That may be achieved in several different ways;
[li]Wave the vermouth cork over the shaker[/li]
[li]Briefly show the vermouth bottle to the shaker[/li]
[li]Whisper the word “vermouth” while pouring the gin[/li]
[li]But the best way is to toss a shot of vermouth over entirely “dry” ice and then pour it back off promptly.[/li]Proceed to make the Martini as you normally would. I prefer a “smokey” Martini where the chilled glass has been rinsed out with a thimblefull of whisky prior to admission of the Martini. The true Martini is served only with a lemon twist. The lemon twist should consist only of the zest and there should be no white rind attached to the skin. If you must use olives, rinse the brine off of them first. Unless you are using Kamchatka, Mr. Boston or some such form of kerosene, where the brine will help disguise the numerous petroleum like aromas emanating therefrom.
Skoal!
This longtime gin drinker doesn’t quite understand this whole martini brouhahha. If you want to drink a glass of gin, here’s what ya do.
Ingredients:
1 bottle gin
1 glass of any kind
ice cubes
Directions:
Fill glass with ice
Fill ice-filled glass with gin
Empty
Repeat
Don’t know why a vodka drinker even bothered to post to this thread. All he needs is a bottle in the freezer and a shot glass.
I personally say many thanks to Tanq. My mom favored Beefeater. Yes, I remember it well, when I was about to add some tonic and my dear mama asked, “Why would you want to do that?”
Best CHEAP gins:
Booth’s
Burnett’s
(or haven’t any of you gotbucks ever had to drink on a budget?)
Gordon’s is the brand I keep around the house. After the second, you don’t taste it much anyhow.
“Gin’s cheap. It hits.”
– Thanx and a tip of the hat to Raymond Chandler’s *Farewell, My Lovely
**
To hell with you sir! I am not very odd, I am peculiar and I will thank you to remember it.
**
Ok, you got me there. I have a very particular set of directions to follow when making my martini (actually a Gibson), but read the recipe at the end. It’s the world’s BEST martini cocktail.
True enough, for some reason a lot of people think a Martini should taste bad and delight in it as though the ability to tolerate one makes them unique (Same people who smoke big cigars, because it’s “in”).
The Perfect Martini or Gibson
5 measures of Bombay Sapphire (kept in the freezer)
1/8 measure Rossi dry vermouth
1/4 measure Blue Curaco
pour into large steel mixing cup, cover with pint glass and shake along with 1 cup crushed ice until frost forms on outside of stainless mixing cup.
Serve with two Tipsy olives or three Tipsy onions (actual brand name “Tipsy”. They are the best). Don’t worry about what to skewer them on, just drop them in the glass.
Serves two of you or one of me.