Bond has always been a vodka man; one story goes that Fleming acquired a taste for it while working as a journalist in Russia. Though these days 007’s preferred Smirnoffof the ’60s has been replaced with Belvedere, maker of the official James Bond martini—Belvedere super-premium vodka from Poland, dry vermouth and a twist of lemon—and the liquor Daniel Craig was first seen quaffing in Spectre. Bond’s choice of vodka over the traditional gin marked him as adventurous and avant-garde in Fleming’s day, though the first notable mention of vodka in a martini appeared in an edition of David Embury’s 1948 bar manual The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
These days, of course, it’s not only 007 who likes his martinis made with ice-cold vodka and little else (many experts agree vodka cannot be “bruised” by shaking, unlike gin). “The martini has always been the pinnacle of cocktail culture,” Gareth Evans, Global Brand Ambassador for Absolut Elyx, the copper-crafted wheat vodka that ranks as one of the world’s finest luxury spirits, tells Maxim. “It is one of the oldest cocktails, and there are a million apocryphal stories about how it came to be. But at its core it is a triumph of simplicity, an icy cold balance between spirit and vermouth and a perfect way to showcase a top-quality vodka.”
This story is from the Nov Dec 2019 edition of Maxim.
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This story is from the Nov Dec 2019 edition of Maxim.
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