"Shaken, not stirred" is how
Ian Fleming's fictional
British Secret Service agent
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
prefers his
martini cocktail.
The
catchphrase first appears in the novel ''
Diamonds Are Forever'' (1956), though Bond himself does not actually say it until ''
Dr. No'' (1958), 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 (
Joseph Wiseman), when he offers the drink in ''Dr. No'' (1962), and it is not uttered by Bond himself (played by
Sean Connery) until ''
Goldfinger'' (1964). It is used in numerous Bond films thereafter with the notable exceptions of ''
You Only Live Twice'' (1967), in which the drink is wrongly offered as "stirred, not shaken", to Bond's response "Perfect", and ''
Casino Royale'' (2006) in which Bond (
Daniel Craig), 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'' (1953). After meeting his
CIA contact
Felix Leiter for the first time,
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
orders a drink from a barman 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
Vermouth (, ) is an Italian aromatized wine, aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various Botany, botanicals (roots, Bark (botany), barks, flowers, seeds, Herb, herbs, and Spice, spices) and sometimes Food coloring, colored. The modern ve ...
, and lemon peel instead of an olive. In the same scene Bond gives more details about the Vesper, telling the same barman that vodka made from grain instead of 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, although he also drinks regular gin martinis. In total, Bond orders 19 vodka martinis and 16 gin martinis throughout Fleming's novels and short stories.
Film
The
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
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'' (1962). When Bond (Sean Connery) has presumably ordered a drink from room service to his hotel room, it is mixed by a waiter (
Frank Singuineau), who says "one medium dry vodka martini mixed like you said, sir, but not stirred." (A slice of lime was in the bottom of the glass.) Later, Dr.
Julius No (
Joseph Wiseman) presents Bond with a drink—"A medium dry vodka martini, lemon peel. Shaken, not stirred."
Bond did not vocally order one himself until ''Goldfinger'' (1964). In the 1967 film ''
You Only Live Twice,'' Bond's contact, Dikko Henderson (
Charles Gray), 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, but when he meets Marc-Ange Draco (
Gabriele Ferzetti) for the first time, Draco tells his assistant, Olympe (
Virginia North), to get a dry martini for Bond. Draco then adds, "Shaken, not stirred."
Roger Moore
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 (
Barbara Bach) orders him one. In ''
Moonraker,'' his drink is prepared by Manuela (
Emily Bolton). In ''
Octopussy,'' the title character (
Maud Adams) herself greets Bond by mixing his drink.
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton's Bond ordered his trademark martini in each of his films. In ''
The Living Daylights'' he and Kara Milovy (
Maryam d'Abo) arrive in Austria where he orders a martini "shaken, not stirred" shortly after entering their hotel. For his second film, ''
Licence to Kill
''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond (literary character), J ...
'' he does not directly order it. Instead, he tells Pam Bouvier (
Carey Lowell) 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 (
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...
) orders the drink in a casino while talking with
Xenia Onatopp (
Famke Janssen), and later, Valentin Zukovsky (
Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He was appointe ...
) refers to Bond as a "charming, sophisticated secret agent. Shaken, but not stirred." In ''
Tomorrow Never Dies'', Paris Carver (
Teri Hatcher) orders the drink for Bond after the two meet again after years apart. While Paris' choice of drink had changed, Bond's had not. In ''
The World Is Not Enough
''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent Jam ...
'', Bond orders the drink in Zukovsky's casino. In ''
Die Another Day'', Bond is coming back on a rather
turbulent British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
flight. The air hostess (played by Roger Moore's daughter
Deborah Moore) 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 (
Toby Stephens) 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 (
Daniel Craig) is playing poker to defeat
Le Chiffre (
Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen (; born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor. He rose to fame in Denmark as an actor for his roles such as Tonny in the first two films of the Pusher (film series), ''Pusher'' film trilogy (1996, 2004), Detective Sergea ...
). Bond ordered the drink, providing great detail about how it should be prepared. The other poker players order the Vesper as well, with Felix Leiter (
Jeffrey Wright) telling the bartender (Martin Ucík) to "keep the fruit" with his. Later, after Bond loses money to Le Chiffre, he orders another martini, but when the barman (Dusan Pelech) 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 (
Jake Seal) gives the precise recipe for the Vesper from Fleming's novel ''Casino Royale'', which was a minor anachronism, since Kina Lillet was reformulated (removing the Kina) 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 (
Bérénice Marlohe) at a casino bar, the bartender (
Orion Lee) 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 barman (Victor Schefé) to his disdain that he is at a health clinic and that the bar does not serve alcohol.
Q (
Ben Whishaw) instead orders Bond an unpleasant-looking green-coloured "prolytic digestive enzyme shake", and a disgusted Bond asks the barman "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 vodka martini and drinks it with Paloma (
Ana de Armas) in honor of Felix Leiter. Paloma finishes the drink very quickly, to calm her nervousness.
Purpose of shaking
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...
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
The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...
in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
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
Vermouth (, ) is an Italian aromatized wine, aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various Botany, botanicals (roots, Bark (botany), barks, flowers, seeds, Herb, herbs, and Spice, spices) and sometimes Food coloring, colored. The modern ve ...
for his martini. Fleming was a fan of martinis shaken by Hans Schröder, a
German bartender.
Harry Craddock's ''Savoy Cocktail Book'' (1930) 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 from the ice cubes when they hit each other or the wall of the shaker. Both of these factors lead to a cloudy appearance and a different texture compared with a stirred drink. However, when any ingredients are opaque (such as citrus juices, dairy, or eggs), changes in clarity and texture are less important.
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 (gives it a slight bitter taste). 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. Prior to the 1960s, vodka was, for the most part, refined from potatoes (usually cheaper brands). This element made the vodka oily. To disperse the oil, Bond ordered his martinis shaken; thus, in the same scene where he orders the martini, he tells the barman about how vodka made from grain rather than potatoes makes his drink even better. Shaking is also said to dissolve the vermouth better, making it less oily tasting.
Properly called a Bradford, a shaken martini also appears cloudier than when stirred. This is caused by the small fragments of ice present in a shaken martini. This also brings into question the movie versions, which are never cloudy. Diluting the drink may be deliberate.
In "
Stirred", an episode of ''
The West Wing'', President
Josiah Bartlet (
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...
) 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 so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it."
Other 007 drinking habits
A general study of Bond's consumption of alcohol in the series of novels by Fleming was published by three scientists.
Spirits
Bond's drinking habits mirror those of his creator, Ian Fleming. Fleming, as well as Bond throughout the novels, had a preference for
bourbon whiskey
Bourbon whiskey (; also simply bourbon) is a Aging (food), barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn (maize). The name derives from the Kingdom of France, French House of Bourbon, although the precise source of inspiration is uncerta ...
. Fleming himself had a fondness for
gin, drinking as much as a bottle a day; however, he was converted to bourbon at the behest of his doctor who informed him of his failing health.
Otherwise, in the films James Bond normally has a fondness for vodka that is accompanied by
product placement for a brand. For instance,
Smirnoff was clearly shown in 1962's ''Dr. No'' and in 1997's ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', in which Bond sits drinking a bottle while in his hotel room in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
. Other brands featured in the films have included
Absolut Vodka,
Stolichnaya and
Finlandia. In the film ''GoldenEye'', Bond suggests
cognac when offered a drink by
M (
Judi Dench), who gives him bourbon instead, as it is her preference. The whiskey poured is in fact
Jack Daniel's, which markets itself as a
Tennessee Whiskey, which is legally a sub-category of bourbon—often distinguished from bourbon itself.
In ''Goldfinger'', Bond drinks a
mint julep at
Auric Goldfinger (
Gert Fröbe)'s
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
stud farm, and in ''
Thunderball'',
Emilio Largo (
Adolfo Celi) gives Bond a
Rum Collins. In ''
Die Another Day'', Bond drinks a
mojito. In ''Casino Royale'', Bond orders
Mount Gay Rum with soda. In that film, he also invents the famous "Vesper" cocktail—a variation on a martini—originally included in the novel but not seen in the films until the reboot. In ''Skyfall'', the villain
Raoul Silva (
Javier Bardem) says he believes 50-year-old
Macallan single malt whisky to be one of Bond's favourites.
Also in ''Goldfinger'' during a briefing on Auric Goldfinger, their host Colonel Smithers (
Richard Vernon) offers a refill with, "Have a little more of this rather disappointing brandy." M (
Bernard Lee) replies, "Why, what is the matter with it?" Bond replies, "I'd say it was a 30-year-old Fine
Fine brandy">Fine_(brandy).html" ;"title="s in Fine (brandy)">Fine brandyindifferently blended, Sir... with an overdose of Bon bois." Bon bois is a Cognac region known for its poor soils. It is a low quality cognac, and Bond is saying that too much of this was used in the blend.
In the novel ''Moonraker (novel)">Moonraker'', it is noted in the card club Blades, Bond adds a single pinch of black pepper to his glass of fine Wolfschmidt vodka, much to M's consternation, to which Bond says he got into the habit in joints that served villainous home brew. It sinks all the poisons to the bottom, and Bond got to like the taste. However, he does admit that he should not have insulted the Club Wolfschmidt.
Beer
Bond is also seen in ''Quantum of Solace'' drinking bottled beer when meeting with Felix Leiter in a Bolivian bar. The following Bond movies of Craig's tenure show Bond's preferred beer to be Heineken. In ''
Licence to Kill
''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond (literary character), J ...
'' when in the dive bar called Barrelhead Bar, he orders the same as his contact, Pam Bouvier, a "
Bud with a lime."
Wines
In the book ''Casino Royale'', Bond describes
Taittinger champagne as "not a well-known brand, but it is probably the finest champagne in the world."
In several of the Bond films, he is known to prefer
Bollinger and
Dom Pérignon champagne.
Never primarily a red wine drinker, Bond tended to favour
Château Mouton Rothschild
Château Mouton Rothschild is a wine estate located in the village of Pauillac in the Médoc region, 50 km (30 mi) north-west of the city of Bordeaux, France. Originally known as ''Château Brane-Mouton'', its red wine was renamed by N ...
; a 1947 vintage in ''Goldfinger'', and half a bottle ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'', a 1934 ordered by M in ''Moonraker'', and a '55 in ''
Diamonds Are Forever''—where Bond unveiled the assassin
Wint (
Bruce Glover) posing as a waiter because the latter did not know that Mouton-Rothschild is a
claret. In the
Jeffery Deaver novel ''
Carte Blanche'', Bond expresses a knowledge and appreciation of
South African wine.
In the film of ''Diamonds Are Forever'', Bond savours a glass of
sherry and fools M into thinking Bond has made a mistake when he pronounces a year of make (51"). When Bond is informed that sherry has no
vintage, he replies (to a non-plussed M) that he was discerning the vintage of the wine on which the sherry is based—1851.
Others
In the film ''You Only Live Twice'', Bond opts for
sake over his usual martini, indicating that he especially likes it when it's served at what he says is the correct temperature of . Tiger Tanaka (
Tetsurō Tamba), his host, is impressed and tells Bond he is exceptionally cultured—for a European.
Aside from alcoholic beverages, Bond is a
coffee drinker and eschews
tea with a passion, believing it to have been a factor in the
fall of the British Empire and referring to it as "a cup of mud" (in Fleming's ''
Goldfinger''). In the novel ''
Live and Let Die'', he expresses his fondness for
Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee—while in the
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
adaptation he is shown operating (in some sense) a La Pavoni Europiccola lever coffee machine in the kitchen of his flat. In the Fleming novel ''
From Russia, with Love'' he is shown to own a
Chemex Coffeemaker and prefers his coffee brewed that way, while in the
film version he orders coffee "very black" for breakfast from his hotel's room service; in Kerim Bey (
Pedro Armendáriz)'s office he asks for his
Turkish coffee "medium sweet" as it is customary to specify the level of sweetness when ordering. He also accepts a cup, refusing cream or sugar, from Franz Sanchez (
Robert Davi) in ''Licence to Kill''—whereas in ''Moonraker'' he refuses a cup of tea offered by
Hugo Drax (
Michael Lonsdale). In ''The Living Daylights'', Bond tastes a cup of café coffee he is served in the
Prater Amusement Park,
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, making a face when it is not up to his standards.
See also
*
Outline of James Bond
*
Drinking culture
References
External links
"Shaken and Stirred, James Bond Loves His Booze" at Time.com.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaken, Not Stirred
Catchphrases
James Bond
Quotations from literature
Quotations from film
Drinking culture
1956 quotations