Super-spy James “007” Bond famously orders his martinis “shaken, not stirred.” But another fictional character, President Bartlet from the show West Wing, claims that Mr. Bond has it all wrong. “Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth,” Martin Sheen’s character opines. “James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it.” So what’s the right way to mix a martini? Shaken or stirred?
Or is there a better way?
SHAKING VERSUS STIRRING
When you’re mixing cocktails, the method you use depends on how you want your drink to feel, taste, and look.
Temperature: Martinis (like many other cocktails) have to be served ice-cold; otherwise they can taste overpowering. Either shaking or stirring can get a cocktail cold, but shaking does it much faster. For example, it takes about 12 seconds of shaking to chill a martini to the ideal temperature of 20°F. By contrast, it takes a full 20 seconds or more of stirring to reach the same temperature. If you’re ordering your drink at a busy bar, a bartender who is rushing to serve a line of impatient customers may not take the time to stir your drink completely.
Maybe this is the reason James Bond insists on his drinks being shaken: he doesn’t want a busy bartender to serve him a martini that, temperature-wise, is less than ideal.
Taste: The downside to shaking a martini is that it causes more ice to melt, which dilutes the drink. Additionally, some connoisseurs believe that shaking a gin martini can “bruise” the gin and give it a sharper taste. However, both of these objections are matters of personal preference. Some people like their martinis watered down, and some don’t taste anything wrong with shaken gin. It’s up to you.
In James Bond’s case, maybe he wants his drinks diluting so that he can better keep his wits about him. But if he’s really all that concerned about staying sharp, perhaps he ought to cut back on the enormous amount of alcohol he consumes!*
Appearance: There is a general consensus among bartenders that if you’re making a cocktail where all the ingredients are clear (like a martini, Manhattan, or negroni), you should stir it. Shaking a drink will mix in air bubbles, which make the drink look cloudy. Shaking will also chip off small pieces of ice that further cloud the drink’s appearance. On the other hand, when you’re mixing a drink with opaque ingredients like eggs, milk, or fruit juice, shaking can give the drink a nice bubbly frothiness.
To sum up:
· If you want your cocktail watered down, shake it.
· If you want it to stay crystal clear, stir it.
· If you want it cold, either method works, but make sure you stir for at least 20 seconds.
But Is There a Way to Get the Best of Both?
Yes! There is a way to make your martinis cold, concentrated, and clear.
Leave your gin or vodka in the freezer prior to mixing your drinks. Chill your glassware as well. (You can also chill your vermouth and olives in your fridge, but don’t make the mistake of putting those in the freezer.) By chilling all your components first, you can make your martini as cold as you like while also having complete control over how concentrated you want your drink to be. Since this method doesn’t use ice at all, you don’t have to guess how much ice has melted. All you have to do is add exactly enough cold water to suit your taste. No ice, no ice chips, no guesswork, no fuss. Perfect!
Earnest Hemingway, who was almost as famous for his drinking as he was for his fiction, reputedly made “the coldest martini in the world.” He would pre-chill his glasses and ingredients, including the Spanish cocktail onions he liked to use for garnish. (He also made huge ice balls by freezing water in tennis ball tubes.)
*A Little (Sad) History
Bond’s famous drinking habits seem to have been modeled on the habits of his author, Ian Fleming. Over the course of the fourteen Bond books that Fleming wrote, Bond consumes, on average, 52.6 standard drinks per week—the equivalent of seven and a half glasses of wine every day. Considering that his alcohol consumption was almost four times over the recommended amount for men, Mr. Bond was certainly living dangerously.
But Fleming’s own drinking eclipsed that of his famous character. Fleming reported drinking as much as a bottle of gin per day, the equivalent of nearly four bottles of wine!
Sadly, Fleming passed away at the age of 56 from heart disease.