Sorry, Purists: James Bond's Martini Order May Make More Sense Than You Think

For decades, cocktail connoisseurs have taken aim at James Bond's most famous order, their objections falling into two camps. First, shaking a martini is seen as a rookie mistake: it clouds the spirit, bruises the botanicals, and leaves you with a drink light on flavor and heavy on regret. Second, why reach for neutral vodka when a martini, being so spirit-forward, was made for the juniper bite of gin? Clearly, they insist, 007 had no idea what he was doing. They couldn't be more wrong. When it came to his drinks, much of what Bond ordered made far more sense than the purists would like to admit. Don't believe us? Buckle up for this boozy breakdown.

Yes, there is a logic to when a drink should be shaken and when it should be stirred. However, the classic objection about "bruising the gin" falls apart in this case because Bond wasn't really a gin man. On screen, he's a vodka drinker through and through, and even in Ian Fleming's novels, the numbers tilt in vodka's favor — 19 vodka martinis to 16 made with gin. And with vodka, shaking is no sin: it doesn't have delicate botanicals to "bruise," and a little dilution can actually make the drink smoother and more approachable. Second, vodka shines when it's ice-cold, and shaking a cocktail chills it faster and more thoroughly than a gentle stir ever could.

What's more, Bond's order may actually have been healthier, too. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that shaken martinis had stronger antioxidant properties than stirred ones, making them better at neutralizing harmful compounds.

Here's another twist purists miss: Bond drank far more than just vodka martinis. In fact, in Casino Royale, the character invented one of the most underrated spirit-forward cocktails: the Vesper Martini. A mix of gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet — a French aperitif with a flavor profile similar to vermouth — it's a drink measured out with the precision of a field operation. Far from a lazy or ignorant choice, it was bold, deliberate, and completely original. Proof that Bond knew his way around a drink from the very start. 

While mixing gin and vodka in a cocktail is practically unheard of outside of the Vesper, fans of the drink argue that vodka's neutrality adds body to the cocktail (code for "makes it stronger") without affecting the flavor balance of the drink. Unfortunately, we'll never know exactly what the original tasted like, since the Kina Lillet isn't available anymore. If you want to experiment with your own, recipes suggest replacing Kina Lillet with Lillet Blanc, and adding a citrusy twist, like a dash of bitters or even a splash of chilled Q Lemon, to match the flavor profile of the original.

The drink added a touch of originality to Bond's character, and remains a popular take on the martini in bars across the world, but author Ian Fleming admitted he had been winging it. In a 1958 letter to the "Manchester Guardian", he confessed: "I proceeded to invent a cocktail for Bond (which I sampled some months later and found unpalatable)." The drink's popularity proves that even when his creator stumbled, Bond didn't!