The James Bond franchise has some recurring elements that have shown up in nearly every film, no matter who’s playing the super spy. There’s often a beautiful woman Bond ends up romancing. He’ll face off against a villain hellbent on destruction, dispatching said villain with a well-placed one-liner. He’ll also usually take a martini — always shaken, never stirred. But why a martini, exactly?The answer lies inIan Fleming’sCasino Royalenovel.
Casino Royaleis the first-ever Bond novel by Fleming, and it didn’t just introduce Bond and his cast of characters to the world; it also served as the inspiration for three different Bond films, includingDaniel Craig’sfirst turn as 007. InCasino Royale,Bond meets MI6 treasurerVesper Lynd, who he falls in love with.Bond also names his signature drinkthe “Vesper"in Lynd’s honor, and it would become a staple of the Bond franchise.
Casino Royale
Ian Fleming Created the Vesper Based on a Friend’s Recipe – but Didn’t Love It
The Vesper is born when Bond and Vesper travel to France to participate in a poker tournament. During the ride, Bond goes to the bar and tells the barman to create a new drink based on his own recipe:
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 thin slice of lemon peel. Got it? … This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I think of a good name.
Fleming actually came up with the cocktailbased on a recipe his friend Ivar Brycecreated, even going so far as to inscribe a special message in Bryce’s copy ofCasino Royale:“For Ivar, who mixed the firstVesperand said the good word.” However, Flemingadmitted in an interviewthat he’d mixed a Vesper and tried it, but didn’t find it all that tasty. “The gimmickry grew like bindweed and now, while it still amuses me, it has become an unfortunate trademark,” he wrote of Bond’s signature tastes. Little did Fleming know that this “gimmickry” would continue to be associated with the character for decades to come.
The Vesper Only Appeared in One Bond Novel
Casino Royaleis full of the trademark elements that define Bond’s character, but it’s also laced with tragedy due to Vesper’s ultimate fate. In both the novel and the film, she is a double agent and sacrifices her lifeto protect Bond— ultimately leading to his hardened, womanizing exterior. He even gives a blunt answer to his superior, M, when asked about Vesper’s status: “The b*tch is dead.” It even had a lasting effect on the Bond novels,as Bond never drank a Vesper again.
But before this, he ended up naming his signature drink after her in a touching moment. The same moment happens almost word for word inCasino Royale,where Bond tells her he named it after her “because once you have tasted it, you won’t drink anything else.“Casino’sfollow-upQuantumof Solaceeven shows Bond throwing back a Vesper, hinting that he’s still hurting after her betrayal and ultimate death, a little character detail that played into Craig’s more nuanced take on the super spy.
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Bad. Very bad.
The James Bond Films Influence Alcohol Sales Based on Whatever Bond Drinks
Bond is best known for sipping on a well-shaken vodka martini,which originated inDr. No,Sean Connery’s first turn as the super spy. It also broke the convention for martinis at the time; Bond usually ordered his with gin in Fleming’s novels, as did the rest of the world. “Up until that time in the 1960s, when you said martini, you meant a gin martini … and gin martinis you don’t want to shake because there’s a theory that it will bruise the gin as air gets in there and the ice dilutes the drink,” the New York School of Bartending’sTom Sissonsaid in aTIME feature that explored Bond’s taste in alcohol. “Then Bond ordered a vodka martini, and with vodka, it doesn’t really matter if you shake it. So it didn’t take that long for sales of vodka martinis, shaken and not stirred, to go through the roof.”
In fact, Sisson went on to highlight howcertain drinks spiked in popularity whenever Bond ordered them.Die Another DaysawPierce Brosnan’s Bond order a mojito, and mojitos became a much more popular drink nationally. It shows how influential Bond is as a character that he can literally make or break a cocktail just by taking a sip, but the Vesper is different because Kina Lillet — a key ingredient in the drink —is no longer available.
Casino Royaleis available for rent or purchase on Prime Video in the U.S.
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