They’re celebrating James Bond’s fiftieth anniversary over at Primer this month, and I couldn’t resist contributing a cocktail article about arguably the most famous drink recipe known to man. “Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred” has been quoted countless times in the last five decades. But is the drink itself any good? And what about Bond’s original drink of choice, the Vesper?

Here’s a quote:

Bond’s go-to drink might be the most famous cocktail recipe on earth – or at least the most-quoted – but it’s probably not the best. Bond liked his martinis dry, which meant little or no French vermouth, and the switch from gin to vodka removed a whole host of botanicals from the equation. The shaken-not-stirred part? That won’t “bruise” the alcohol (which is nonsense), but what it will do is both dilute and aerate the drink substantially more than stirring. The funny thing is: this has a much more profound impact on a gin martini, where the aeration changes the aromatic notes, and the dilution has a noticeable impact on flavor. Vodka is made to be flavorless, for all intents and purposes; all you’re doing by shaking instead of stirring is reducing the alcohol burn.

You can read the whole article over at Primer!