007 was WRONG....

...about his taste in mixed drinks!

Hey howdy fellow Food Theorists, it's Kura again! o7 Did I fool you into thinking I accidentally posted a Film Theory? (Probably not! ;P) Recently I've seen a lot of you asking Team Theorist to look into how different cooking methods might effect how foods taste, but did you know something as simple as how you *mix* something can change its taste? Since it's a holiday here in the US (which is prime time for drinking) I thought today I'd talk about James Bond's taste in martinis, and what the heck he's actually ordering!

Before we begin, especially since Food Theory always seem very much a family-friendly channel, I feel like I should add that, holiday or not, please, please, *please* drink responsibly, and only if you've reached your country's legal age limit. Don't drink and drive, and don't drink enough to make you sick. :(

Now, even if you've never watched a single James Bond film in your life, you've probably at some point heard the iconic line, "shaken and not stirred." It's the typical way he likes his martini, even to the point that, depending on the source material, his adversaries know his preference. So what's the big deal with a shaken martini? Why does Bond like it so much, and is there something about it that just makes it better?

First of all, the traditional recipe for a basic martini is 1 part vermouth to 6 parts gin. You can get fancy and add other ingredients and flavors for some truly amazing drinks, but this is your starting point for any traditionally-based recipe, and as implied by the famous line, these drinks are usually stirred, not shaken. Since we're using just this basic recipe, the first question we need to answer is what is the difference between these two mixing methods? Like, what *actually* happens? In the end, they both result in a mixed drink, so is there something of the process itself that effects the booze? And the answer to that is just... air. Air happens.

You see, when you stir a liquid, you aren't really going to aggravate it too much unless you're really whipping it around, so air doesn't have the opportunity to get into the dish. On the other hand, when you shake it, you're actually mixing the air into the drink, too! This goes back to the principles of aeration we talked about a few weeks ago, which in certain circumstances make things lighter and fluffier--if you've ever shaken your orange juice or milk before pouring, you've probably noticed the kind of foamy head it develops. The thing is, not all drinks will develop much foam at all, and spirits like gin are precisely those kinds of drinks that don't.

When you shake a spirit like gin and incorporate more air into it, what actually happens is an erosion of its taste. Every cocktail blog online seems to agree that when you shake it, gin becomes more bitter and less palatable over all. This called "bruising," and I found it best explained by the MIT researcher, Shannon Stewart: when it comes to complex odors, there are typically three parts, which are called the "top note," the "middle note," and the "base note." The top note is typically more volatile than the middle or base notes, and when exposed to air, it dissipates more quickly because of this. This is why some drinks like wine are allowed to "breathe" before they're served, as their top notes tend to be more acidic. Gin, on the other hand, has a top note that's very palatable and more desirable to taste, so it's better to drink it than let it sit. Shaking it introduces more air into the surface area of the drink, and thus, reduces those desirable top notes.

Of course, aeration isn't the only thing that occurs when you shake gin--because when you mix a drink in a cocktail shaker, you're typically mixing it with the ice, too. I mean, ice is ice, right? If you put it in your drink, it's gonna make it cold, and it's gonna melt over time. There's not much too it. But shaking ice in your drink also has a different effect than stirring it! It's actually much more effective at chilling the drink--and also much more effective at diluting it. When you shake ice in a cocktail shaker, it kind of rattles around and starts to break down faster. This draws the heat more quickly from the surrounding liquid, while simultaneously watering it down.

So what does this mean for our favorite secret agent? Well... what Bond's really ordering is a watered down martini that's lost a lot of its most distinctive flavor. When you're so busy saving the world, there's no accounting for taste, I guess. Everyone has their flaws... but... that can't just be it, right? Why would James be ordering a cocktail that's objectively worse?

The answer may surprise you! In 1999, researchers published a paper to *The BMJ* about Mr. Bond's taste in mixed drinks--and why he may be choosing the healthier option. They found that when you shake a martini, the amount of antioxidants in the drink increases, making it more effective at eliminating free radicals. These are oxygen molecules with uneven numbers of electrons, and are believed to cause health issues due to the ease with which they can react with other chemicals in our bodies, though it seems we know very little about them overall. Antioxidants have become popular in the health food industry for their role in targeting them, and supposedly can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, among other things.

In the end, 007 may not be ordering the tastiest martini, but at least he's ordering the one that will keep him in better shape!

...and that was Kura's Monday long-post! If you've read this far, please enjoy a cookie with some aerated milk. The bubbles are fun.

**tl;dr: Shaking martinis bruises the gin and makes it taste bitter, but also increases antioxidants so you can pretend it's better for you.**

**Sources:**

**Aeration and bruising gin:** [https://talesofthecocktail.org/techniques/scientific-argument-never-shaking-your-gin/](https://talesofthecocktail.org/techniques/scientific-argument-never-shaking-your-gin/)

**Shaking martinis and antioxidants:** [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC28303/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC28303/)