It has often been said that James Bond’s vodka martini revolutionised the cocktail in America and finished off the gin martini. But Smirnoff’s Moscow Mule first opened up the possibilities of using vodka instead of gin in cocktails and predates the vodka martini, which appears for the first time in Ian Fleming’s second Bond novel, Live and Let Die, published in 1954.
Nevertheless, the importance of vodka in its association with James Bond and the phrase “shaken, not stirred” cannot be underestimated, especially as alcohol could not be advertised on American television.
In Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale, published in 1953, Bond orders a dry martini made with both vodka and gin, and details the recipe to the barman. The same recipe appears in an identical form in the most recent film adaptation of the novel starring Daniel Craig. He names the cocktail The Vesper after the main love interest in the film, and it is also drunk by Bond in the 2008 film Quantum of Solace. The ingredients of the drink have since had to be modified, as the vermouth Kina Lillet no longer exists except in a reincarnated version called Lillet Blanc, which had some of the quinine removed to make it less bitter. To match the strength of the Gordon’s gin, Gordon’s Export, rather than their standard gin, must now be used.
Gin was banished from the vodka martini, which made its debut in the novel Live And Let Die in 1954. Bond tells Solitaire how to mix it but not with the “shaken and not stirred” phrase, which is not mentioned anywhere until Dr. No.
From then on, the vodka martini occurred more often in the films than in the books. Bond does not restrict his enjoyment of vodka to the martini he made famous. The secret agent enjoys a plain vodka and tonic in Istanbul in From Russia With Love, in which the vodka is passable, albeit flooded with tonic. The same drink is enjoyed in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Thunderball along with a dash of Angostura bitters. When with M in Moonraker, 007 drops a pinch of pepper into his vodka to sink the fusel oil to the bottom whilst carefully removing with his finger a few remaining specks of pepper that remain on the top. As M drinks Wolfschmidt, a perfectly pure vodka, the pepper refinement really betrays how little Bond knows about vodka brands.
Earlier in the day, before he has dinner with Goldfinger in England, Bond has several vodka and tonics, and endures a lecture that evening by his host. Goldfinger expiates on the evils of both smoking and drinking, including the poison of fusel oil in alcohol. Bond shows off his knowledge of vodka distillation, explaining that he drinks the spirit because he has heard that:
“…its filtration through activated charcoal is a help.”
Bond, dredging this piece of expertise out of dim recollections of something he had read, was rather proud of having been able to return Goldfinger’s powerful serve.
Goldfinger glanced at him sharply. “You seem to understand something of these matters. Have you studied chemistry?” “Only dabbled in it.” It was time to move on…
The “shaken, not stirred” line recurred in many of the Bond films and was parodied elsewhere. Bugs Bunny delights in a carrot martini, which emerges from a car dashboard at the push of a button, and is announced by the car with, “Shaken, not stirred, sir?” The first novel to use the phrase in the narrative was Diamonds Are Forever (1956), but it was first uttered in Dr. No by Julius No. Bond himself began using the immortal phrase in Goldfinger.
Does shaking rather than stirring make any difference at all to the taste of the cocktail? The question was considered in a rather tonguein-cheek scientific analysis carried out in Canada:
Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis.
Background: Moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks seems to reduce the risks of developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts, perhaps through antioxidant actions of their alcohol, flavonoid, or polyphenol contents.
“Shaken, not stirred,” routinely identifies the way the famous secret agent James Bond requires his martinis.
Objectives: As Mr Bond is not afflicted by cataracts or cardiovascular disease, an investigation was conducted to determine whether the mode of preparing martinis has an influence on their antioxidant capacity.
After detailing several pages of the laboratory analysis, the scientists noted that, “Shaken martinis were more effective in deactivating hydrogen peroxide than the stirred variety.” It also concluded that:
Although the reason for the superior antioxidant activity of shaken martinis is not clear, is it possible that James Bond chose shaken martinis because of the improved antioxidant potential? This added antioxidant effect could result, of course, in a healthier beverage.
Conclusion: 007’s profound state of health may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders.
Almost the last word on the subject came from correspondence in New Scientist magazine in which it was suggested that when Fleming was writing, the vodka that he drank was probably made from potato rather than grain. Indeed, in Dr. No, Bond asks that the vodka should be Polish, not Russian. That Fleming might have been partial to Polish potato-based vodkas could explain the origins of the “shaken, not stirred” line, because vodka made from potato can have an oily taste – often described as creamy – and this can be reduced when shaken with ice. In an experiment with potato-and grain-based vodkas, a reader of the New Scientist assembled a group of vodka-drinking guinea pigs:
First we tasted the vodkas. In the blind trial, all six people in our sample said the potato vodka was oily and the grain vodka wasn’t. Then we made two vodka martinis using the potato vodka. One was stirred with ice, the other shaken with ice. The difference was quite distinct and in a blind tasting every one of the six drinkers characterised the shaken martini as being much less oily. But the martini had to be consumed quickly. If left to settle for five minutes or so, the shaken martini became oily again.
It is a conceivable explanation for the phrase’s gestation, but despite these conjectures, it seems more likely that Fleming would himself drink M’s favoured Wolfschmidt, which is made from grain.
Although Smirnoff is used in the films, Bond’s favourite vodka was the Russian Stolichnaya, which he drinks in Licence to Kill, when it is doctored with chloral hydrate. He also drinks it from the bottle in Sebastian Faulks’ Fleming-Bond pastiche, Devil May Care.
The frequent mention of vodka in the Bond novels made the film versions ideal means for product placement. It was a massive boon for Smirnoff given that alcoholic product advertisements have been limited to cable television in America, and only since 1996. As the most famous vodka in America and Europe, Smirnoff was the obvious choice for featuring in the Bond films. It appeared in the first film, Dr. No, and is clearly visible in a long, hovering camera shot over the bottle in a hotel in Tomorrow Never Dies. It also features in The World is not Enough.
The famous Smirnoff-Bond association lasted for nearly 40 years, but when MGM were planning Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan as Bond, Smirnoff did not take up their usual product placement option. It was probably the result of the attempt beginning in 1995 to modernise the company’s image. Smirnoff stated that they were really trying to attract consumers who were “more in the 21 to 29 age group. People in that age group socialise more… and that fits in with their perceptions of Smirnoff and when it’s best enjoyed. Bond’s audience is men aged 25 to 45. James Bond isn’t about socialising with friends. Bond is about status and being cool.”
MGM retorted that the Bond target audience included men and women between the ages of thirteen and fifty-nine, but an American research group suggested that Bond enthusiasts were disproportionately located at each end of the age scale. Teenage boys liked Bond because of video game spin-offs, and men over thirty-five were often Bond devotees. In both cases, vodka promotions were inadvisable as the boys were too young, while members of the older group tended to be less promiscuous in their drinking habits and were already wedded to their favourite vodka.
Finlandia was delighted to accept the product placement. Its global marketing director for sales crowed, “this is an unbelievable coup for us”, before adding that, “Finlandia’s image fits perfectly with the film’s ice theme. Finlandia’s image is cold, clean, natural and icy. Our bottle is patterned after glacial ice.”
With a slight dig at Smirnoff, a spokeswoman added that “the typical Finlandia drinker is aged between twenty-five and thirty-nine, when customers have more discretionary income and are developing a taste for higher-quality vodka.” The deal with MGM was reported to have cost Finlandia $1 million. When the film appeared, the product’s name was never spoken. Instead, Pierce Brosnan ventures to Iceland, where a bar is carved into the interior of an ice palace, and its icy shelves are stacked with bottles of Finlandia.
The fling between Bond and Finlandia ended when Casino Royal was produced in 2006 and featured Smirnoff stands in a couple of scenes. Although it ran a Bond-related advert when the film came out, Smirnoff’s product placement in Casino Royale was positively demure by the standards of the franchise. Smirnoff returned almost as an afterthought to support the secret agent in Quantum of Solace, with a special limited edition of Smirnoff Quantum of Solace Black Vodka. By the time of the film franchise’s 50th anniversary and the release of Skyfall (2012), vodka’s association with Bond was blown out of the water by a rumoured $45 million tie-up with Heineken.
Vodka cocktails in films and on TV have not always been taken so seriously, especially those concocted by Homer Simpson. In the 2010 season of The Simpsons, he shakes up a large measure of vodka in a mayonnaise jar and after drinking it, collapses immediately. He has however invented a cocktail redolent of wheatgrass called The Lawnmower, which he shares with a neighbour in an episode made in 1989.
Less frivolously, vodka was a constant feature in the film based on the novel Hot Snow, which centres on the Battle of Stalingrad. It is memorably drunk from tins into which newly-awarded war medals have been dropped. A vehicle for comedy in The Irony of Fate, vodka almost headed the dramatis personae in the film, which was shown in Russia on almost every New Year’s Eve after it was released in 1976. It revolves around the character of Zhenya, a vodka lover who gets drunk and accidentally flies to Leningrad from Moscow to celebrate the New Year. It is as popular in Russia as It’s a Wonderful Life. The annual showing of the film ceased during the Gorbachev period, when it and other films appearing to glorify vodka were banned, but a sequel has since been produced, which features the children of the original characters.
The relatively late appearance of vodka in America meant that it did not feature in films until the 1930s, when the world’s most famous butler took part in the Hollywood comedy Step Lively, Jeeves! (1937). The P. G. Wodehouse character goes to America to claim a fortune only to find that he has been duped by a fake Russian prince, who plies him with vodka until he is drunk. The spirit is described as “the nectar of cherubs and angels”, and the film, using vodka to “authenticate” the scene, is a reflection of how the spirit was still considered in America to be a Russian drink.
Vodka has had no shortage of starring roles in films set in the Baltic region. In Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994), two gloomy Finns, Valto and Reino, go wandering in search of coffee and vodka, without which their lives are meaningless. They meet two women, Russian Klaudia and Estonian Tatiana, who want to become more than friends with the men.
The harshness of life, only cheered up by vodka, is a constant theme of two cinematic gems: The Vodka Factory and Vodka Lemon. The award-winning, Swedish-produced film The Vodka Factory is beautifully filmed, from the opening shots of vodka bottles being packed from a conveyor belt to atmospheric snowscapes. A fictional story shot in the style of a documentary, it focuses on Valya, a 22-year-old single mother who works in a local vodka factory. She lives with her son and her mother in a backwoods Russian town where there is nothing to do but drink vodka. Valya would have to leave her son behind to fulfil her dreams of becoming an actress in Moscow. It seems she can only create fantasies of a world she can never have.
Filmed in Armenia and directed by Hiner Saleem, Vodka Lemon is an outstanding film, which, set against a background of never melting snow, is characterised by warm humour that frequently borders on the absurd. In an Armenian village financially ruined by the Soviet collapse, Hamo (Romen Avinian), a Kurdish widower with three useless sons, visits his wife’s grave every day, where he meets the widow Nina (Lala Sarkissian). She works in a bar, Vodka Lemon, which is about to close down, and although the couple have scarcely a penny between them, poverty does not hinder the blossoming of a love affair. The production won the Best Film Award at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.
There was no doubt that vodka had arrived in Britain when it featured heavily in the television series Absolutely Fabulous. First broadcast in 1992, more than thirty episodes would see vodka, or a vodka cocktail, being an integral part of the life of the bohemians of the London fashion scene.
It has been suggested that when the cocktail was in eclipse, this was due to an increase in the use of recreational drugs, an issue which did not affect the main characters in the series who enjoyed both. The favourite drink of Patsy and Edina, played by Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders respectively, was their own invention of Stoli-Boly, which was made from Stolichnaya vodka and Bollinger champagne. This inspired the creation of the cocktail Absolutely Fabulous in 1999 at Monte’s Club in London. A new series was shown in 2011 along with an Olympics special in 2012, about which Joanna Lumley remarked: “The great thing is that… we fast-forwarded to where they’re very old and nearly dead and practically plugged into vodka machines.”
For vodka excess, it is hard to beat The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, a cult film of the 1990s about a group of drag queens swilling vodka while crossing the Australian desert in a bus called Priscilla. Terence Stamp plays Bernadette Basinger, a transvestite who is challenged in an outback country bar to a drinking contest by a fat, vulgar Australian woman. They drink Stolichnaya vodka and when the abusive woman loses to the drag queen, Basinger gains the admiration of the uncouth locals.
When the film was reincarnated as the Broadway and London musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert, it became an ideal means of showcasing particular vodka brands which sponsored, or were associated with, the productions including Grey Goose, Rokk, and Russian Standard.