Ian Fleming - Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming (The official cocktail book)

IAN FLEMING AT GOLDENEYE, JAMAICA, 1951. PHOTOGRAPHED BY CECIL BEATON.

Photo by Cecil Beaton/Cond Nast via Getty Images The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sothebys

BY FERGUS FLEMING

I an Fleming liked to surround himself with stories, his fertile mind finding romance in the most mundane item. Cars, clothes, food, cigarettes and travel he wove legends around them all, but none were so memorable as those involving drink. Transferred to the page these tales of the everyday became hallmarks of the Bond novels: vodka, for example, should be sprinkled with pepper to remove impurities; bourbon should be mixed only with the clearest branch water; Napoleon brandy must be avoided at all costs; no serious drink should be consumed under bright sun; olives should be eschewed in favour of lemon peel; and of course, a Martini should be shaken not stirred.

His American friend Ernest Cuneo recalled, Of all the maddening trivia through which I have suffered, nothing quite matched Flemings instructions on how his [Martinis] were to be made... he was painfully specific about both the vermouth and the gin and explained each step to the guy who was going to mix it as if it were a delicate brain operation. Several times I asked him impatiently why the hell he didnt go downstairs and mix it himself, but he ignored me as if he hadnt heard and continued right on with his instructions. Equally annoyingly, he always warmly congratulated the captain when he tasted it as if he had just completed a fleet manoeuvre at flank speed. What escaped Cuneo was that Fleming wasnt just ordering a drink. No, he was telling a story in which Cuneo and the captain had unwittingly become participants.

Curiously, while Bond would later achieve fame through the films, the rituals so beloved of his creator translated with the notable exception of shaken not stirred only superficially on to the screen. Which was perhaps as well, since Fleming could be an unreliable authority. At one point he had Bond downing a brandy and ginger, at another condemning it as only fit for drunkards. When he got round to tasting the Vesper cocktail he had invented for Casino Royale, he declared it horrible. And when one journalist recently consumed the food and alcohol allotted to Bond during one day in Goldfinger he found himself barely able to move, let alone infiltrate an international criminals headquarters. But these were minor details it was the story that counted.

A Martini was, famously, Flemings favourite drink. It isnt, however, the one that appears most frequently in the Bond novels. The winner here is Champagne with 121 mentions, followed by whisky at 77. Gin and vodka come relatively low at 33 and 37 mentions respectively. Rum limps in at 11 and the absolute loser is beer, which he didnt think counted. The deficiency of rum is curious because it formed the basis of Flemings party special, Old Mans Thing. This perilous and potentially explosive cocktail, which he consumed only in Jamaica, never made it into Bonds repertoire and one can see why. The recipe is as follows: take a glass bowl; peel but do not break an orange and a lime; put them in the bowl, add several bottles of white rum and light with a match. A daintier version is included in this book under the same name, but if youre after a story with a bang then Flemings concoction has better credentials.

I myself abhor Wine-and-Foodmanship, he once wrote. Be that as it may, he was a man who knew what he liked. He had an unerring if not expert eye for fine wine and was specific about spirits. Only the finest distilleries were acceptable. In 1961, condemned to a mere three ounces of hard liquor per day as a result of a heart attack, he wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to find which brands were the best: I wish to concentrate on the purest and finest liquor obtainable in England. This vital piece of information will be known in your Ministry i.e., which is the finest refined spirit, gin, whisky or brandy on the market at any price. The Ministrys answer, alas, is unknown.

Its just that Id rather die of drink than of thirst.

THUNDERBALL

One wonders what Ian would have made of modern mixology. Cocktails can be tricky things, as many people know to their cost and subsequent headaches. To quote his old drinking pal Cuneo, Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die... has a lot of drawbacks, the principal one being that you dont die; you just feel lousy. But they have an undeniable mystique. Pour this, shake that, serve it in a fancy glass, add subtle lighting and all of a sudden the evening is a page waiting to be turned. The narrative is irresistible. Ian was no stranger to smoke-filled bars (the combination of cigarettes and alcohol did him in in the end) and he certainly knew how to turn pages. The twenty-first century is a far cry from the age of The Savoy in which he grew up and a further cry still from the age of austerity in which his novels made their first appearance but one feels he would have approved.

The cocktails presented here have been created by award-winning mixologists Edmund Weil, Bobby Hiddleston and Mia Johansson. Some of the recipes are old stalwarts taken from the novels, but the majority are completely new, inspired by the people, places and adventures found in Flemings writings. Regardless of their origins they all reflect Ians basic ethos that behind everything whoever you are, wherever you go and whatever you do there is a story to be told. So take comfort as you raise the glass that it contains no ordinary drink. You have mixed a measure of Ian Flemings imagination.

GLASSES

Highball: also known as a Collins glass, the Highball is designed to be filled to the top with ice to ensure your drink stays cold and undiluted the classic vessel for long drinks such as the gin and tonic.

Rocks: a short tumbler-style glass designed to hold spirits with ice; often also used for neat spirits.

Martini: the quintessential cocktail glass long-stemmed with a triangular shape.

Coupe: an elegant stemmed bowl glass, originally designed for Champagne. Also used as a vintage alternative to the classic Martini glass.

Coupette: similar to a coupe, but smaller.

Champagne flute: a tall, slim, stemmed glass.

Sling: long, slim glass with a squat stem and base, similar to a traditional Pilsner glass.