It actually makes no difference whether your martini is shaken or stirred; it's going to taste the same either way. Note: see below for a retraction.

If you think about it, this makes James Bond kind of an idiot -- the bartenders are rolling their eyes behind his back as soon as the camera pans away.

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Update: Apparently I'm wrong and there is a difference between a shaken or stirred martini (thanks to Footprints for correcting me). In addition to the decanting/not decanting distinction, shaking a martini can, apparently, bruise the gin and make it cloudy.

On the plus side, according to a Canadian study, a shaken martini may contain more antioxidants than a stirred one. This could be why Bond doesn't have cancer after all these years of hanging out in smoky casinos.

However... I maintain Bond is an idiot. First off, a real martini is always made with gin, not vodka (as 007 orders it). And secondly, according to some, when you shake a martini instead of stirring it's not a martini anymore; it's a drink called a "Bradford."
Actually pmather is wrong. It makes a big difference whether any drink (including martini) is shaken or stirred.

In stirring, the drink is stirred with ice cubes for a few seconds, and the decanted. This causes only a slight mixing of the drink with the ice cubes, which means that the drink becomes cooler, but is not strongly diluted. Shaking, on the other hand, means shaking the drink vigorously in a shaker, so the drink gets diluted with a large amount of water.

James Bond is thus not an idiot, he is a wimp - he can't handle a strong drink.

"Shaken not Stirred" is the title to two different albums by different artists, David Benoit and Phil Vassar, published one decade apart. The David Benoit album was produced in 1994 by David Benoit under GRP Records.

Shaken not Stirred is Benoit's 17th album of solo works. It is preceeded by the 1994 album Lost and Found (which Benoit did not authorise) and is succeeded by the 1995 album The Stars Fell On Henrietta.

The album's first song, Wailea, was re-released in 1995 in the compilation album, The Best Of David Benoit 1987 - 1995.

The album's last song, Sarah's Theme, was the main theme in the film Sirens.

Tracklist:

1.  wailea                (4:26)
2.  i went to bat for you (4:26)
3.  any other time        (5:03)
4.  carmel                (3:08)
5.  sparks flew           (4:19)
6.  shaken not stirred    (5:37)
7.  chi chi's eyes        (4:43)
8.  days of old           (4:24)
9.  jacqueline            (3:28)
10. sarah's theme         (6:10)
The Phil Vassar studio album was produced in 2004. It was his third album, preceeded by the 2002 album American Child and suceeded by the 2006 album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1.

The album's second song, In a Real Love, made number one in Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart listing.

Tracklist:

1.  Good Ole Days 
2.  In A Real Love 
3.  What Happens in Vegas 
4.  I'll Take That As A Yes (The Hot Tub Song) 
5.  Erase 
6.  Here To Forget 
7.  I Miss The Innocence 
8.  Amazing Grace 
9.  Nobody Knows Me Like You 
10. Dancin' With Dreams 
11. Gone By Dawn 
12. Black And Whites

James Bond an idiot? How dare you? No, it's the film people who are the idiots. See, in the first few 007 books (yes, like so many other things they were books first, and a lot better in that form, too...), Bond would usually ask for a martini "Stirred, not shaken". This was thought to be the epitome of cool back in the early Sixties. But somehow Cubby Broccoli or someone else on the film crew switched it around.

Please remember, this is the man who once identified a Russian spy simply by the fact that the man ordered the wrong wine with his fish (From Russia With Love). Obviously not a man to get confused about how to make a drink.

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