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

by Edmund Weil

The 007 official cocktail book - created in association with the Ian Fleming Estate Explore Bond creator Ian Fleming's writings on the pleasures of drinking and sample 50 delicious cocktail recipes inspired by his work - developed by award-winning bar Swift. Cocktails are at the glamorous heart of every Bond story. Whether it's the favoured 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. Recipes are divided into five Straight Up; On The Rocks; Tall; Fizzy; and Exotic. Sip on inventions such as Smersh, Moneypenny, That Old Devil M and Diamonds are Forever, as well as classic Bond cocktails such as the Vesper and, of course, the Dry Martini. Each recipe is accompanied by extracts from Fleming's writings - be it the passage where the classic drink was featured or a place, character or plot that inspired one of the drinks. Also features Ian Fleming's writings on whisky, gin and other spirits. Foreword by Fergus Fleming.

Genres: Cookbooks

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 6, 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!