James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part II December 28, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! I'm back at the Royale-les-Eaux hotel for the second part of the James Bond literary cocktail tour. When we last left off in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, Bond had met his CIA contemporary Felix Leiter and they were sitting down to enjoy a cocktail.

Where Bond had ordered a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks for Felix, he ordered his now signature cocktail. It is in this initial offering of his now immortal spy series that we are introduced to Ian Fleming's signature cocktail: The Vesper. Here is how Bond orders the cocktail on page 44:

Bond insisted on ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig 'on the rocks' and then looked carefully at the barman.

'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'
'Oui, Monsieur.'
'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?'
'Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
'Gosh that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm...er...concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.'

He watched carefully as the deep glass became frosted with the pale golden drink, slightly aerated by the bruising of the shaker. He reached for it and took a long sip.

'Excellent,' he said to the barman, 'but if you can get a vodka made with grain instead of potatoes, you will find it still better.'

So Bond prefers a grain vodka to a potato vodka? Some of you might say to yourselves: What's the difference. If you have a gluten allergy then you would definitely prefer the potato vodka over the wheat vodka. Before I go into the differences between the potato and grain vodkas, I wanted to define what they are.

Potato vodka is easy, its made with potatoes as the main base ingredient. Grain vodkas can be made from grains such as corn, wheat, rye, barley and others. There are vodkas such as the French vodka Ciroc that is made from grapes, the Milo Vodka from Kansas that is made from Sorghum, the Haku Japanese Vodka made with by white rice by Suntory and the Polish Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka. I'm sure there are other things that vodka has been made from including fruits. Now on to the difference in the potato and grain vodkas.

For this I go to the VODKA 101 post from the Williams Sonoma Taste blog dated November 29, 2013. The article asks Rich Bubbico, the General Manager at Schiller’s Liquor Bar in New York for his thoughts on the differences between. Potato and grain vodkas:

There are many different varieties out there, but the most common vodka is made with grains. I think wheat is the most common, but rye and barley are frequently used as well. Wheat poses a problem for folks who have gluten allergies, so those who can’t ingest wheat should look for potato or corn vodkas. 

I have tasted a variety of vodkas in my time, and I really don’t think there is a flavor difference between potato vodka and grain vodka. Keep in mind, vodka is a neutral spirit by definition; it lacks flavor or aroma. This is why it makes great cocktails: because it does not distract from the other flavors, it’s like having a blank canvas to start from.

Some other impressions I've come across state that grain vodka, especially those made from corn tend to be the most flavorless of vodka while potato vodkas generally tend to be the most flavorful of vodkas. In the end it comes down to the distillation process. Better distillation produces a better product. This is especially so with Vodka. Now on to the naming of the cocktail.

Bond finally finds a suitable name for his cocktail upon meeting Vesper Lynd on page 52:

'Vesper,' she said. 'Vesper Lynd'

Bond gave her a look of inquiry.

'It's rather a bore always having to explain, but I was born in the evening, on a very stormy evening according to my parents. Apparently they wanted to remember it.' She smiled. 'Some people like it, others don't. I'm just used to it'

'I think it's a fine name,' said Bond. An idea struck him. 'Can I borrow it?' He explained his special Martini he had invented and his search for a perfect name for it. 'The Vesper,' he said. 'It sounds perfect and it's very appropriate to the violet hour when my cocktail will now be drunk all over the world. Can I have it?'

'So long as I can try one first,' she promised. 'It sounds a drink to be proud of.'
'Will have one together when all this is finished,' said Bond.

So did Bond and Vesper finally enjoy her namesake cocktail? Alas they were not fated to have that cocktail together. But don't let me spoil the story for you, go and read the book. As for the cocktail itself...Many thanks to Ian Fleming to introducing this very potent cocktail to the world. Watch the video below to experience how master mixologist Alessandro Palazzi of the famed Dukes Hotel Bar in London makes the Vesper.

In doing so, Palazzi not only makes the Vesper Martini but gives us the behind the scenes history on the inspiration that Ian Fleming tapped into when creating the Vesper. Dukes is known to be the place where Ian Fleming came up with the idea for the Vesper.

You better believe that Dukes Bar is on the top of the list of places to visit on my London bucket list.

For the next post, I go into some of Bond's champagne expertise in Casino Royale. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

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James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part I December 16, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! Today's post came about due to a recent conversation with my friend Melvin. We got to talking about the first cocktail that Ian Fleming's spy 007 himself James Bond had in print. For those of you who might not know, James Bond's adventures were first immortalized in print before hitting the big screen. Fleming started writing his spy novels in the 1950's with his first book Casino Royale debuting in 1953.

Casino Royale was the first of 11 novels and a number of short stories that revolved around James Bond. On a side note, due to licensing and other issues surrounding the Bond franchise, the movies were released in a different order than the books were written in. This is why the Daniel Craig debut Bond movie Casino Royale came out in 2006, almost 40 years after the Peter Niven Casino Royale movie that isn't in the Bond movie continuity. But back to the cocktails.

Unlike the movies where Bond is forever known for his Martini, shaken not stirred shtick, the Bond of the books consumes a variety of spirits and cocktails during his missions. Heck, his signature cocktail which would be christened the Vesper Martini in this book isn't even the first drink that Bond has. That distinction belongs to the Americano. Bond is at the Hermitage Bar awaiting the arrival of Mathis and Vesper Lynd when he orders the Milanese cocktail that was known as the Milano-Torino and now the more commonly referred to as the Americano,

I profiled the Americano Cocktail way back in 2012 with my post entitled surprisingly enough Americano (🤣🤣🤣.) Now the Americano can be had in two different ways with its base spirits being the same. Campari and Vermouth Rosso make up the cocktail with the only difference is the addition of club soda. Here is how the Campari website describes the Americano:

A cocktail you'll love at first sip thanks to its special texture and striking mixture of flavors. There are many legends and stories about how this cocktails got its name, for sure the Americano is one of James Bond's favourite cocktails (he ordered one in 007 Casino Royale). The Americano is part of the official cocktail list of the IBA (international bartending association) and IBA cocktails are prepared all over the world according to this original recipe.

 Well since they mention the recipe for the Americano, here is is:

Americano
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Campari
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Red Vermouth
- Splash of Soda

Make it
1) Pour the ingredients directly in a old-fashioned glass
2) Fill with ice cubes
3) Add a splash of soda water
4) Garnish with orange slice or lemon peel

Or if you prefer, you can have it without the club soda with the same ratio of Campari and Sweet Vermouth over ice. The choice is yours. Moving on.

After Bond meets CIA Agent Felix Leiter at the casino, they go to the casino bar and Bond orders Felix a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks. Bond orders himself a dry martini which I'll go into a bit later. On to the Haig-and-Haig.

Known for the slogan "Don't Be Vague, Ask For Haig" the John Haig and Company Limited aka Haig-and-Haig has the distinction of being one of the oldest known established Scotch distillers in the world. Apparently there was an incident in 1655 where Robert Haig was taken to task over distilling Scotch over the Sabbath and the records were kept to prove it. Back then this was definitely a No-No on the day of rest. It is believed that the distilling of what is now the Haig line of Scotches goes back to 1627. Haig-and-Haig's line of Scotch whiskies were some of the most popular spirits around the world up to the 1970s and it's no surprise that they would be featured in Ian Fleming's works. Their two most widely found and most popular blended Scotches are virtually the two sides of the same coin.

The Pinch and the Dimple are known for their distinctive three sided bottle with a dimple in the middle of each side. Why do I say virtually the two sides of the same coin? Well Haig-and-Haig would sell the Pinch for the United States market at 86.8 proof (43.4 ALC) while the Dimple was sold in Europe at 80 proof (40 ALC.) Both carry an age statement of 15-years. The age statement would change to 12-yers for more recent versions of the Pinch and Dimple. So when Bond orders Felix a "Haig-and-Haig on the rocks" while in France, we can make an educated guess that he's being poured the 80 proof Dimple and not the 86.8 proof Pinch. So why not just order a Dimple instead of a Haig-and-Haig? Let me try and make another educated guess on that based on some research.

I decide to hit up my trusty The Schweppes Guide to Scotch by Philip Morrice for the answer. According to the book:

Some whiskies are known by different name in different countries. Haig's De Luxe whisky, Dimple, is known as Pinch in the United States, whilst Haig is known there as Haig & Haig after the family offshoot which established itself in the United States many years ago to market Scotch whisky. Similarly, North Americans may be surprised to find that their Dewar's (pronounced Doo-ers, as their advertisements say) is better known in its native land as White Label.

After some issues with rights and ownership in the U.S., the Haig and Haig line became part of the John Haig umbrella in 1925. Even with Prohibition coming and going in the U.S., the Pinch brand was commonly known as Haig-and-Haig. So for Bond ordering a Haig-and-Haig for Felix would lend to the familiarity of having a Pinch on the rocks though in reality he would be having a Dimple on the rocks. Get it? Got it? Good!

And this isn't a one off for Bond and Felix enjoying some Haig-and-Haig. No sir, the Haig-and-Haig Scotch is enjoyed by both gentlemen in later Bond stories that I will get to in later posts. But let's stay at the Hotel Royale-les-Eaux for the next part of the post where I highlight the appearance of Bond's signature drink and the preferred vodka type that Bond likes for said cocktail. Keep your eyes peeled for it!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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