Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming, the official cocktail book

by Edmund Weil

The Official 007 Cocktail Book

Just as fast cars, exotic locations and opulent casinos are synonymous with the world of Ian Fleming's James Bond, so too are cocktails. From the very first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in which Bond christens The Vesper, to the immortal lines, 'shaken and not stirred,' which first appeared in print in Diamonds Are Forever, cocktails are at the glamorous heart of every Bond story. Whether it's the favored Martini, which features in almost every book, or a refreshing Negroni or Daiquiri, strong, carefully crafted drinks are a consistent feature of the Bond novels, and they have become a symbol of the James Bond lifestyle which so many fans aspire to emulate.

In this authorized James Bond cocktail book the reader will discover excerpts from Ian Fleming's writing, with cocktail recipes to match. There are ten classic drinks from the pages of the novels, plus 40 brand-new ones inspired by the people, places and plots of the original novels, created by the mixologists at London's award-winning bar, Swift.

Genres: Cookbooks

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super enjoyable read for James Bond fans. I’m not even interested in the cocktails themselves (there are some truly weird ingredients, sesame oil in a cocktail?! Noooo thank you)

I love that the cocktails are named after characters and places from his novels, those names each have excerpts from the many stories, and there are bits of trivia about Ian Fleming and his writings.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a nice object to own than an indispensable bible, this largely contains the kind of recipe that calls for one rare and weird ingredient you will never use again (thyme liqueur, anyone?), or requires you to knock up some syrup infused with pandan leaves. But plenty of these would be fun to construct for a special occasion, and the photos, and Fleming quotations, are lovely.

[Judy Kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this as a birthday gift as my husband knows I'm a big cocktail fan and so far I've had a lot of fun trying some of the recipes out. My only criticism is that a lot of these cocktails were created for this book and only 'inspired' by the Bond books/characters, so don't be surprised if some of them are unfamiliar/didn't exist before. There are also a lot of unusual/hard to find ingredients that could make some of these cocktails impossible to make. Apart from that, a fun book with lots of interesting Fleming/007 stuff!

[Michael Fricker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't just a cocktail book with recipes for drinks and mixology for Bond fans.

This is a book for fans of Fleming, fans of James Bond and fans of drinking. Each recipe is followed by two pages of excerpts from the Bond Novels, Fleming's own letters or even conversations with his friends. These excerpts all relate to the drink, so maybe if the recipe has coffee in it we get a passage from Casino Royale when Le Chiffre gives Bond coffee.

Its a good read in addition to being a recipe book and it is an interesting way to re-read Fleming's words about Bond and his world!