You know the classic James Bond line “Martini, shaken, not stirred” is there an actual difference in the taste of the drink from shaking it vs stirring it?
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As a general rule, any drink with citrus juice is shaken, and drinks without should be stirred.
This is how I’ve heard it. First, back then martinis were always made with gin. You weren’t supposed to shake gin as it was said that shaking it would “bruise” the liquor and affect the flavor of the botanicals present in gin. Vodka has no botanicals so shaking it didn’t affect the flavor. I think it was a campaign by Smirnoff to sell their vodka by associating with James Bonds popularity. They approached Albert Broccolli and he made a vodka martini a thing that was desirable. Before that, vodka wasn’t a popular drink with men.
When stirring (w/ ice) you are cooling the drink and adding water.
When shaking (w/ ice) you are
* Cooling the drink
* Adding water
* Aerating the drink
* Muddling fruit pulp + other solid ingredients
* Adding ice chips which will melt faster, incorporating more water as you drink (than if you stirred)
Rule of thumb without getting into the weeds: if you are making a liquor-focussed drink like a martini or Old fashioned, stir. If you are making something fruit-focussed like a Daiquiri or Whisky Sour, shake.
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At a higher level, there are multiple different types of shakes that mostly come down to how much you want to agitate the ingredients. “Rolling” is when you poor the drink back and forth between two glasses and is really gentle, this is good when you want to avoid ice chips. Some ingredients will also do poorly in an other wise shaken cocktail, such as mint leaf which becomes bitter or anything carbonated. In general when mixing cocktails you need to consider every ingredient, how they behave when shaken/stirred/rolled/muddled/blended/strained/floated. And don’t be afraid to “build” the drink one step at a time. Shaking some ingredients, muddling others, and then rolling them together is arguably as common a technique in bars as just stirring.
At an even higher level you can start considering the chemistry at play, as there are many active components. Acid, alcohol, salt, sugars, oxygen, water, and more are all very active and react with eachother. Some drinks are even built with the intent of the chemical reaction affecting the drink over the 10-15 minutes it takes to consume the drink.
That quote from James Bond is mocked endlessly in the mixology community because shaking a martini makes no fucking sense, and absolutely would not make you look higher class.
There’s a theory that Bond wanted his martini shaken because it would dilute the drink more, and he didn’t want to get drunk on the job. But there’s still the same amount of alcohol either way. Lol
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Shaking can also beat the flavors out of fruit. I always lightly muddle a couple cherries and an orange rind in my old fashion, then beat it up with ice through shaking, then strained into a fresh glass with fresh ice. Keeps the chunks and pulp out but maintains the flavor
You should never shake a martini. Breaks up the alcohol’s botanicals (flavors) too much, dilutes and aerates it. Especially with a fine gin! Mixed, juicy drinks can be shaken. Clear, more pure alcohol drinks (martinis, gimlets etc…) should be gently stirred.
Shaking will melt more of the ice, watering it down. The enemies of James Bond can think he has been drinking and might be off his game, but he only took a few sips of watered down vodka.
why hasn’t anyone mentioned the tactical reason? you can slip something into the drink while stirring a but not in a closed shaker.
Shaking the drink chips the ice and waters it down.
James Bond is ordering a weak drink and being snobby about it.
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