The other day I had coffee with an un-named gentleman who has been in California and national politics since probably the 1950’s. He looked over his coffee (black, thank the Lord) and noted that when he was in his 30’s most business was done in smoky, more whiskey and gin laden atmospheres. And that he thought the more social aspect of politics in years gone by also lubricated the actual getting of things done. He also mentioned the particular formula of his favorite drink – a gin martini.

Having made the wide-awake at midnight, knot in the stomach promise to that self-same deity above that if I won a particular race or two in June I would run 3 miles a day or so and drink nothing but beer as a shield against boring conversation, until the quickening of the November Election and my return to San Diego’s dread Alby’s, the recipe of this un-named gentleman’s martini interested me. From time to time, before my pledge, you see, I was inclined to order a gin myself.

Anyway, so this was on my mind as I was reading “Casino Royale” which I believe to be the first James Bond novel (Ian Fleming, 1953). And on page 40 there is was: the actual first time James Bond orders his martini. So for your reading pleasure, here it is:

‘A dry Martini,’ he said. ‘One. In a deep champagne goblet.’

‘Oui, Monsieur.”

‘Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large think slice of lemon-peel. Got it?’

‘Certainly, monsieur.’ The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

‘Gosh, that’s certainly a drink,” said Leitner.

Bond laughed. ‘When I’m -er- concentrating,’ he explained, ‘II never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one drink to be large and very strong and very cold and very well made…’

This leads me to a few observations:

1. James Bond drinks his Martinis in a champagne goblet. This is probably because in that time period Martini’s (from what I understand) were generally smaller 2 or 3 ounce drinks while his was a monster 4 1/2 without the shake.

2. The rumor for years is that James bond drinks a vodka martini. But that doesn’t really make sense if this is his order – “three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka.” Clearly if he wanted he could have ordered four measures of vodka, if not and the Gordon’s IS a vodka, you’d think he’d name the other vodka and not leave it to chance. And generally when I think Gordon’s I think the gin my grandfather drinks. So my theory is Bond drank a mixed drink mostly of gin, but partially of vodka. This makes sense for the time period (again, the 1950s) when gin dramatically outsold vodka, which was more of an ethnic novelty. Later in the page Bond makes a comment to the bartender about vodka which leads the reader to believe it’s not a common beverage.

3. Bond takes garnish.

Felix Leitner, who is having a cocktail with bond during this chapter, calls this drink the ‘Molotov Cocktail.’

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.