Shaken, Not Stirred

Secret Agent Bond, James Bond, has his signature cocktail. Oozing sophistication, he requests a Martini. But not any Martini, no. His Martini better be shaken, not stirred. Ah, here’s someone with attention to detail, who knows what he wants and asks for it.

It’s sure cool in the movies, but there’s something that irks me about that line. Let’s gloss over the fact that stirring a Martini is the objectively correct way—as with most cocktails that contain no fruit juice. No, the issue is that shaking versus stirring is a tiny detail compared to the much bigger issue of the gin-to-vermouth ratio, for which there is no single official answer. Depending on the bartender, you might get ratios of 2:1, 3:1, even 7:1 for an extra dry one. So if James Bond is so concerned with the small difference induced by shaking versus stirring, he should be even more concerned with asking for the exact ratio he prefers.

As I’m thinking through a potential project for a client, I’m reminded that we shouldn’t forget the important basics over the “sophisticated” details. If you don’t get the basics right, the finer points don’t have a chance to shine. It’s important to cut through the noise of potential decisions and sort them by whether they’re a “gin-to-vermouth” type of decision or a “shaken versus stirred” type of decision. The latter will easily fall into place later, but only once the former have been properly dealt with.