Thursday 21 August 2008

Stirred, not shaken

I've just watched a Mythbusters programme where they were testing various James Bond stuff. One they tried out was about martini. Is there a difference between a shaken and a stirred martini?

I would have guessed that there wasn't. Then they explained how a shaken martini gets more ice into it. Not just the spirits expert they'd brought in, but the Mythbusters staff could all tell the difference in a blind taste. The shaken martini was more dilute.

I'm very disappointed in James Bond going for the watered-down shaken martini. What a flipping wimp. You can probably guess which I would prefer.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shall I be the tosser who smugly points out that in Ian Fleming's books, Bond did prefer stirred to shaken...? Oh, go on then.

The Beer Nut said...

Hurray for Bond geekery!

Did they make any mention of using black pepper to capture fusel oil in dodgy Baltic vodka, as described at the beginning of Moonraker? That's way more interesting than Martinis.

Barry M said...

TBN, your geekery knows no bo(u)nds!

Kristen England said...

Bond geeks! :)

When you shake gin you 'bruise' it. It muddles all the aromatics...all you end up getting is 'muddy' flavors. Speaking of gin...

Anonymous said...

ron, stop deleting my posts...who will be your publisher?

Pivní Filosof said...

There is a funny bit in Casino Royale when a barman asks Bond if he would like his martini shaken or stirred, his answer is somethig like "Do I look like I care?". Craig's Bond doesn't give a fuck, good boy.