Shaken, not stirred
"Shaken, not stirred" is how Ian Fleming's fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond prefers his martini cocktail.
The catchphrase first appears in the novel Diamonds Are Forever, though Bond himself does not actually say it until Dr. No, where his exact words are "shaken and not stirred." In the film adaptations of Fleming's novels, the phrase is first uttered by the villain, Dr. Julius No, when he offers the drink in Dr. No. It is not uttered by Bond himself until Goldfinger. It is used in numerous Bond films thereafter with the notable exceptions of You Only Live Twice, in which the drink is wrongly offered as "stirred, not shaken", to Bond's response "Perfect", and Casino Royale in which Bond, after losing millions of dollars in a game of poker, is asked if he wants his martini shaken or stirred and snaps, "Do I look like I give a damn?"
Variations in the Bond novels and films
Novels
The earliest form of the "shaken, not stirred" motif appears in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, where it only specifies "shake it". After meeting his CIA contact Felix Leiter for the first time, James Bond orders a drink from a bartender while at the casino.The drink will later be referred to as a "Vesper", after the original Bond girl, Vesper Lynd. A Vesper differs from Bond's usual cocktail of choice, the martini, in that it uses both gin and vodka, Kina Lillet instead of vermouth, and lemon peel instead of an olive. In the same scene, Bond gives more details about the "Vesper", telling the same bartender that vodka made from grain rather than potatoes makes the drink even better. Kina Lillet is no longer available. Russian and Polish vodkas were also always preferred by Bond if they were in stock. Although there is a lot of discussion on the Vesper, it is ordered only once throughout Ian Fleming's novels, and by later books Bond is ordering regular vodka martinis. However, he also drinks regular gin martinis. In total, Bond orders 19 vodka martinis and 16 gin martinis throughout Fleming's novels and short stories.
The first appearance of a contrast between shaken and stirred is in the novel Diamonds Are Forever ; note the presence of "and", which was later dropped in the films:
First said by Bond in the novel Dr. No :
Film
The American Film Institute honoured Goldfinger and the phrase on 21 July 2005 by ranking it #90 on a list of best movie quotes in the past 100 years of film.Sean Connery
The shaken martini is mentioned twice in the first Bond film Dr. No. When Bond has presumably ordered a drink from room service, it is mixed by a waiter, who says, "One medium dry vodka martini mixed like you said, sir, but not stirred." Later, Dr. Julius No presents Bond with a drink—"A medium dry vodka martini, lemon peel. Shaken, not stirred."Bond did not vocally order one himself until Goldfinger, as: "A martini. Shaken, not stirred."
In the 1967 film You Only Live Twice, Bond's contact, Dikko Henderson, prepares a martini for Bond and says, "That's, um, stirred, not shaken. That was right, wasn't it?" To which Bond replies politely, "Perfect."
George Lazenby
In George Lazenby's only film as Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond never actually orders himself a drink. Still, when he meets Marc-Ange Draco for the first time, Draco tells his assistant, Olympe, to get a dry martini for Bond. Draco then adds, "Shaken, not stirred."Roger Moore
's Bond never actually ordered one himself, but has one ordered for him several times, nonetheless. In the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me, Anya Amasova orders him one. In Moonraker, his drink is prepared by Manuela. In Octopussy, the title character herself greets Bond by mixing his drink.Timothy Dalton
's Bond ordered his trademark martini in each of his films. In The Living Daylights, he and Kara Milovy arrive in Austria, where he orders a martini "shaken, not stirred" shortly after entering their hotel. For his second film, Licence to Kill he does not directly order it. Instead, he tells Pam Bouvier what drink he would like as he plays blackjack, only to end up disappearing shortly after, leaving Bouvier to down the entire martini in one long gulp—much to her disgust.Pierce Brosnan
In GoldenEye, Bond orders the drink in a casino while talking with Xenia Onatopp. Later, Valentin Zukovsky refers to Bond as a "charming, sophisticated secret agent. Shaken, but not stirred." In Tomorrow Never Dies, Paris Carver orders the drink for Bond after the two meet again after years apart. While Paris's choice of drink had changed, Bond's had not. In The World Is Not Enough, Bond orders the drink in Zukovsky's casino. In Die Another Day, Bond is coming back on a rather turbulent British Airways flight. The air hostess serves him his martini, to which Bond replies, "Luckily I asked for it shaken". Later in the film, when Bond travels to Gustav Graves's ice palace in Iceland, he orders another martini, ironically telling the bartender "Plenty of ice, if you can spare it."Daniel Craig
The Vesper was reused in the 2006 film version of Casino Royale, while Bond is playing poker to defeat Le Chiffre. Bond ordered the drink, providing detailed instructions for its preparation. The other poker players order the Vesper as well, with Felix Leiter telling the bartender to "keep the fruit" with his. Later, after Bond loses money to Le Chiffre, he orders another martini, but when the bartender asks whether he would like it shaken or stirred, Bond snaps, "Do I look like I give a damn?"In Quantum of Solace, the bartender on an aeroplane gives the precise recipe for the Vesper from Fleming's novel Casino Royale, which was a minor anachronism, since Kina Lillet was reformulated in 1986, 22 years before the film's production. Bond is purported to have drunk six of them.
In Skyfall, when talking to Bond girl Sévérine at a casino bar, the bartender is seen shaking Bond's martini before pouring it, to which Bond comments "perfect".
In Spectre, Bond orders his signature drink in a mountaintop resort, only to be told by the bartender to his disdain that he is at a health clinic and that the bar does not serve alcohol. Q instead orders Bond an unpleasant-looking green-coloured "prolytic digestive enzyme shake", and a disgusted Bond asks the bartender, "Do me a favour, will you? Throw that down the toilet. Cut out the middleman."
In No Time to Die, Bond orders his signature drink, a vodka martini, and drinks it with Paloma in honor of Felix Leiter. Paloma finishes the drink very quickly to calm her nervousness.
Purpose of shaking
s and martini connoisseurs have investigated the difference between a martini shaken and a martini stirred. The Department of Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario in Canada studied whether preparation of a martini affects its antioxidant capacity; the study found that the shaken gin martinis were able to deactivate hydrogen peroxide and leave only 0.072% of the peroxide control value, while the stirred gin martini left 0.157%.Andrew Lycett, an Ian Fleming biographer, believed that Fleming liked his martinis shaken, not stirred, because Fleming thought that stirring a drink diminished its flavour. Lycett also noted that Fleming preferred gin and vermouth for his martini. Fleming was a fan of martinis shaken by Hans Schröder, a German bartender.
Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book prescribes shaking for all its martini recipes. However, many bartenders stir any cocktail whose ingredients are all transparent—such as martinis, manhattans, and negronis—to maintain clarity and texture. Shaking a drink introduces air bubbles into the mixture and can chip off small pieces of ice when ice cubes hit each other or the shaker walls. Both factors lead to a cloudy appearance and a texture different from that of a stirred drink. However, when any ingredients are opaque, changes in clarity and texture are less critical.
Both shaking and stirring a drink with ice serve to chill and dilute the drink. Both techniques are equally effective, but shaking is much faster. Bartenders do not stir long enough to reach the matching temperature and dilution.
Some connoisseurs believe that shaking gin "bruises" the gin. Fleming's novel Casino Royale states that Bond "watched as the deep glass became frosted with the pale golden drink, slightly aerated by the bruising of the shaker," suggesting that Bond was requesting it shaken because of the vodka it contained. Before the 1960s, vodka was, for the most part, refined from potatoes. This element made the vodka oily. To disperse the oil, Bond ordered his martini shaken; thus, in the same scene where he orders the martini, he tells the bartender that vodka made from grain rather than potatoes makes his drink even better. Shaking is also said to dissolve the vermouth more effectively, making it less oily-tasting.
Properly called a Bradford, a shaken martini also appears cloudier than when stirred. This is caused by small ice fragments present in a shaken martini. This also raises questions about the movie versions, which are never cloudy. Diluting the drink may be deliberate.
In "Stirred", an episode of The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet disagrees with Bond in a conversation with his aide Charlie Young: "Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is to prevent the ice from chipping. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it."