James Bond’s Questionable Drink Order

The origins of the martini are unknown, but the earliest mention of the drink comes from an 1883 newspaper ad that identifies it as a type of Manhattan. (Because you know, spirits + vermouth = Manhattan, right?) The dry martini wouldn’t show up for over a decade though, and these original martinis were equal parts Old Tom gin and sweet red vermouth with a dash of orange bitters and a lemon twist. I tried this concoction, and it’s pretty medicinal tasting, so I recommend upping the gin content and adding some dry vermouth to round it out a bit. In fact, here’s how I take my martini:

d9d7d3768deec0b34f7c52021f0d2d0aThe Old Tom Martini
– 2 oz Old Tom gin
– .5 oz sweet vermouth
– .5 oz dry vermouth
– 2 dashes of orange bitters
– lemon peel garnish
Stir gin, vermouth, and bitters and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

The iconic dry vodka martini may have shown up as early as the 1930s when a Russian restaurant craze hit New York, but the true Vodka Boom wouldn’t begin until the US’s alliance with Russia in WWII. Unlike gin, vodka’s chief selling point is its neutrality, meaning that it can mix well with a wide variety of flavors. Playing on this, Smirnoff adopted the tremendously successful tagline “Leave You Breathless” throughout the 50s and 60s. This was the era of the “3-Martini Lunch,” when it was socially acceptable to have a few drinks at lunch so long as you didn’t come back to work reeking of the stuff, and the mostly odorless vodka fit the bill. This was also the time period when books about a certain British spy started hitting the shelves. While the books were widely read, James Bond truly cemented his place in popular culture with 1962’s Dr. No, and as Bond rose to stardom, so did his signature drink: the vodka martini, shaken not stirred.

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photo source: GQ, credit: Rex Features

And this is where I have to interject something:
There is no reason to shake a martini. Shaking a drink aerates it, resulting in a foamier, frothier texture. Also, if your cocktail has ingredients that need to be pulverized with ice (citrus, egg white, mint, etc.), then yes, break out the shaker. For martinis, manhattans, sazeracs, and other drinks where smooth texture is the goal, shaking them is a great way to disrupt that. You want to stir a martini, not shake it. Bond’s drink order is pretty impractical.*

*Remember of course that bartending is a hospitality industry, so when some guy in a tuxedo steps up to your bar and orders a “vodka martini, shaken not stirred,” smile, nod, and save your eye-roll for after you’ve turned around to snag the vermouth out of the fridge.
Oh yeah, bonus tip: always refrigerate vermouth when it’s not in use.

Vodka sales in America surpassed gin and even whiskey by the 1970s, and I think Mr. Bond is at least partially responsible. The vodka martini would remain the definitive cocktail for a generation until the rise of the cosmopolitan in the 1980s and the resurgence of classic cocktails like the old fashioned in more recent years. Personally, I’d love to see a return to the Old Tom Martini, but odds are, if you go into a bar today and ask for a martini without giving any other instructions, you’ll get something like this:

Extra Dry Vodka Martini
– 3 oz vodka
– 1/8 oz dry vermouth
Stir vodka, vermouth, and olive brine (if desired), strain into chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with olives.

Of course, with so many options, there are many ways to customize your martini: Gin or vodka? Olive or lemon? Dry? Dirty? Perfect? Flavored? How you order a martini makes a world of difference, so we’ll cover that next week.

Also, if you’d like to learn about the history of drinks and spirits in a crash course form, I highly recommend BarSmarts. It’s well worth the money, and you get drink recipes, a complete (if quick) history of spirits, explanations of bar tools, and interviews with experts like Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, and others. A few of this week’s vodka facts came from the BarSmarts curriculum, so I wanted to make sure I mentioned the program. If you’re serious about cocktails, check it out!

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