Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming

Book by: Ian Fleming
introduction by: Fergus Fleming
text and recipes by: Edmund Weil, Bobby Hiddleston & Mia Johansson

“So take comfort as you raise the glass that it contains no ordinary drink. You have mixed a measure of Ian Fleming’s imagination,” Fergus Fleming.

Martini’s are my favorite drinks. I have always been a huge fan of James Bond and have loved his references to fun drinks throughout the movies.

I am always happy to try a new cocktail book and Shaken: Drinking with James Bond & Ian Fleming has great drinks in it.

The variety of recipes it offers over many different categories allow you to make something new and different. The categories include Straight Up, On the Rocks, Tall, Fizzy and Exotic. No matter what mood you are in you can find something here you want to try. Plus the book has fun quotes from James Bond and it is just an interesting read in itself.

Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever is inspired by Ian Fleming’s fascination with diamond smuggling. I had a really hard time finding the ingredients for this recipe. The pear eau de vie, creme de poire and lemon bitters were impossible to find locally. I had to use some substitutions such as an apple brandy and a lemon tonic water. The drink wasn’t identical to the recipe but still had the essence of it. It was delicious and I would make it again. I would love to try to find all of the ingredients from the recipe and make it again.

That Old Devil M

My favorite liquor is Chambord, not sure when I first had it but I have been drinking cocktails with it for a long time. Once I saw the recipe for That Old Devil M I knew I had to make it. I was able to find the Chambord and the pink champagne but I couldn’t get the kirsch locally. After some searching I found out that you could use amaretto as a substitute.

The drink was delicious and perfect. I would love to try it with kirsch (when I can find it) but in the meantime this will definitely be a cocktail that I make again.

Shaken: Drinking with James Bond & Ian Fleming is a great cocktail recipe book. I loved how it was set up and enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making the drinks.

The recipes are easy to follow but for me it was hard to find all of the ingredients. I am currently living in Northern Virginia and due to the laws here you only have small package stores that are allowed to sell liquor. This can make it really difficult to find specialty liquors. A lot of what I was looking for was available from some of the larger stores such as Total Wine, if you were in another state. Remember though you can always find good substitutions to make any of the drink recipes.

I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book and may through a James Bond party one night. What’s your favorite James Bond film?