BOND IS, OF COURSE, a man who likes his drinks. In the novel Casino Royale he declares Tattinger the best champagne, while in Fleming’s Moonraker his preferred vodka is Wolfschmidt from Riga (not easy to find). Drinks in the movies often depended on locations and sponsors. And of course the movie Bond is addicted to vodka martinis. But there are different literary Bond cocktails that might be sipped by a would-be Bond.
Americano
007 enjoys it in Fleming’s novels Casino Royale, From Russia with Love, and short stories “From a View to a Kill” and “Risico.” His personal recipe: Bitter Campari, Cinzano vermouth, lemon peel, and Perrier water.
Dry Martini
One of Bond’s (and his author’s) favorite cocktails. He drinks it in Fleming’s novels Live and Let Die, Thunderball, and Diamonds Are Forever, and anticipates it in the short story “007 in New York.” It’s supposed to be about 6/7 London dry gin and 1/7 vermouth (possibly Italian, possibily Martini, but Bond drinks it also with American-made vermouth), with olives or a lemon twist (my personal suggestion).
Negroni
One of my personal favorites. Drunk by Bond in Fleming’s short story “Risico,” it’s made with London dry gin, Bitter Campari, and red vermouth, decorated with half an orange slice. Only side effect: by the time you really start enjoying it, the glass is empty and you have to order a second one.
The Vesper
Bond’s personal creation in the novel Casino Royale. 3/4 London dry gin, 1/4 vodka, a bit of Kina Lillet (very hard to find nowadays), and lemon peel, served in a champagne goblet. Not intended to support long-lasting relationships.
Vodka Martini
Just like the dry martini recipe, but with vodka instead of gin—and, of course, shaken, not stirred, as most Bond movies remind us. The only exception is in You Only Live Twice, where Charles Gray offers it stirred, not shaken. In the novels it appears in Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever, and Dr. No. In the film version of the latter, Sean Connery has a medium dry martini (half vodka, half vermouth).
I like to think that Bond would just get bored drinking the same vodka martini, shaken not stirred. Today, in Italy but also in several countries in the world, there are some “Bond Point” bars (from London to Athens to Hong Kong) offering a huge variety of drinks and cocktails from 007 novels and films. Bartender Luca Coslovich from Milan’s Palace Hotel (where Bond went in John Gardner’s novel Never Send Flowers) even created his own variation, a Gold Vodka Martini, which deserves to be tried at least once in your life. The recipe is secret, but one of its ingredients is actually gold.
Here are my few humble martini suggestions.
Suicide Special
Three parts vodka (original Russian grain vodka if possible), three parts London dry gin, one part Martini extra-dry vermouth, and three drops of lemon juice; shake with ice and serve.
Spanish Martini
Six parts Larios dry gin (from Spain), one part Martini extra-dry vermouth; shake or stir with ice, and add a lemon twist. (I’m not sponsored by Larios, but I should be, after drinking the stuff for all these years!)
Convective Vodka Martini
No shaker around? Don’t worry. Put in your martini glass a few drops of lemon and a very little bit of room-temperature Martini extra-dry vermouth (or white vermouth, if you want a slightly sweeter touch); then add, generously, your favorite ice-cold Russian vodka. The laws of physics will be on your side: through convective streams inside the glass, the warmer vermouth and lemon juice molecules will mix perfectly with the cold vodka molecules and you’ll have a wonderful “natural” martini. (That’s all I got from all my years at the university, apart from the know-how required to correctly translate the nuclear bomb scenes in Bond books.)