Martini Shakers

How martini shakers went from wet to dry in fifty years

That a cocktail shaker is often referred to as a martini shaker but never a cosmopolitan shaker or appletini shaker is a testament to the iconic status of the martini. Martini shakers have held a unique place in American consciousness for nearly a century now. Though the particular components of martinis fall in and out of style, the martini shaker has remained eternally cool.

The first martini shakers

What went into the martini shakers of the late 19th Century` The contents of martinis have changed a great deal since the first martini recipes were published in the 1890s. Glass martini shakers once filled with gin and sweet vermouth have given way to the vodka-filled martini shaker of today.

If you owned a martini shaker at the end of the 19th Century, your drink would likely consist of one part sweet gin, one part sweet vermouth, a dash or two of gum syrup, Curacao, and bitters.

The insides of martini shakers got a little drier during the jazzy 1930s, as martini recipes moved to dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth, and the ratio of gin to vermouth tilted to either three or four parts gin to one part vermouth.

Dry, Bond dry

No cultural figure is more synonymous with an ice-cold martini shaker than James Bond. It’s fitting then that Bond also symbolizes the final transition in the 1950s from "wet" martinis to dry martinis.

In his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, published in 1953, author Ian Fleming gives the exact ingredients that went into Bond's martini shaker: three measures of Gordon's gin, one measure of Russian or Polish vodka, and a half measure of Kina Lillet aperitif, all shaken until ice-cold and garnished with a large, thin lemon slice.

But by 1954, in Fleming's second novel, Live and Let Die, Bond had abandoned his original concoction for his now famous vodka martinis.

Oddly enough, the new Bond film coming out in November 2006 is an adaptation of Casino Royale. No word yet on whether the martini shakers on set held gin and vermouth or vodka.

Shaken versus stirred

As for Bond's famous line "shaken, not stirred," most of today's drinkers also opt for the former. After all, it's called a martini shaker, not a martini stirrer.

The advantages of shaking your martini shaker are still debated, but a certain effect is that shaking breaks up the ice, adding more water and thus altering a martini's taste. Shaking partisans contend that this gives martinis an even, rounded, and sharper taste.

In any case, be they shaken or stirred, filled with gin, vermouth, or vodka, we can all agree that martini shakers make the ultimate cocktails.

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