“Bond has it wrong” you say. Not necessarily. It’s a matter of preference.

Stirring clear spirits is the accepted method – if your focus is primarily on presentation and time, which are important factors for bartenders.

Shaking the mixture will result in a colder cocktail. It’s physics: a shaken liquid, moving more rapidly than a stirred liquid, will have greater contact with the surface area of the ice – therefore, it will be colder. (Compare liquid with ice placed in it, to liquid with ice stirred in it, to liquid with ice shaken in it – and then tell me which is colder.)

Another physics point: alcohol has a lower freezing temperature than water. Fruit juices are mostly water. With water displacing the alcohol, fruity cocktails can never be as cold as cocktails made from clear spirits. That also means it takes more effort to chill a fruity cocktail – so it’s shaken instead of stirred so it will be ready faster. Selling drinks is a business and time has to be a factor.

Vodkas usually have high levels of alcohol. They remain liquid even when chilled below the freezing point of water. Shaking the vodka with ice, rather than stirring it, will result in a colder martini in less time.

“Shaken, not stirred,” shows that Bond’s preference is for a very cold vodka martini, regardless of practice or presentation. And since we’re talking Bond’s preference here, not the bartender’s, may I point out that, “The customer is always right” – so… Bond’s not wrong.

By Tangents on Aug 29, 2009