Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis
BMJ 1999; 319 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1600 (Published 18 December 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;319:1600All rapid responses
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Gentlemen,
I think and also agree out that Martini and Vodka should be stirred nor
shaken. When it is shaken it becomes a drink called "Bradford ".Ref: Dr.
Bell, Head of Physiology from Trinity College in Dublin.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
EDITOR: In earlier correspondence to the BMJ we reported the results
from our study of the antioxidant activities of martinis1. In our hands,
James Bond's shaken martinis proved to be superior, at least statistically
so, when compared to the stirred variety. Further, we suggested that
007's choice of drink might be reflected in his robust state of health as
a result of his evident preference for the shaken variety. This was
consistent with epidemiological data concluding that moderate consumption
of alcoholic beverages appears to reduce the risk of developing certain
diseases with presumed oxidative damage stages in their pathogenesis1.
We received a number of insightful responses from your readership.
Several readers, in the true academic spirit, pointed out an underlying
error in the study, namely that our investigation was conducted on gin-
vermouth martinis. Evidently, in contrast to his very British secret
agent style in other aspects of his life, 007 consumed the more
international form of martini, that based on the inclusion of vodka rather
than gin. While we still believe that his real preference was for the gin
-based cocktail and that substitution of vodka was intended primarily to
confound his adversaries when he was abroad, we acknowledge the
contribution. Moreover, we decided to put the issue to the test.
Stirred and shaken martinis were assayed for their ability to quench
luminescence by a procedure in which hydrogen peroxide reacts with luminol
bound to albumin1. This method appears to be a more sensitive measure of
antioxidant activity than other antioxidant assays because it detects
antioxidant activity of ethanol2, which other assays fail to detect.
Student's t test was used for statistical analysis. Data from before1 had
shown that shaken gin martinis were more effective in deactivating
hydrogen peroxide than the stirred variety. Moreover, both proved to be
more effective than vodka martinis, or gin, vodka, or vermouth alone
(Table 1)(0.072% of peroxide control for shaken gin martini, 0.157% for
stirred, 0.64% for shaken vodka martini, 3.26% for stirred vs. 58.3% for
gin, 84.3% for vodka, and 1.90% for vermouth). Preliminary experiments
indicate that vodka martinis are less well endowed with polyphenols than
gin martinis, which probably accounts, at least in part, for the enhanced
antioxidant activity of the gin martinis (Table 2). The catechin
equivalent concentration previously reported for gin martinis was: shaken
(0.056 mmol/L catechin equivalents) stirred (0.060 mmol/L), while the
polyphenol concentration of the vodka martinis is somewhat lower: shaken
equal to stirred (0.002 mmol/L). Because the polyphenol components of
vermouth ( 0.095 mmol/L catechin equivalents) are common to both drinks,
the difference in polyphenol content between gin and vodka martinis is
likely a result of the lower polyphenol content of vodka ( not detectable,
0 mmol/L catechin equivalents) as compared to gin ( 0.129 mmol/L catechin
equivalents). In the light of these findings we suggest that 007 should
re-examine his choice of martinis to optimize their antioxidant content,
whenever circumstances permit him to do so.
|
|||||||||
No. of |
Significance |
Confidence limits |
|||||||
Manoeuvre |
samples |
Mean |
SE |
(shaken vs. stirred) |
Mean% +/- |
(+CL) |
(-CL) |
||
Shaken (gin) martini |
0.072 |
0.020 |
(df=11) P=0.0057 |
0.072 |
0.121 |
0.023 |
|||
Stirred (gin) martini |
6 |
0.157 |
0.018 |
0.157 |
0.203 |
0.111 |
|||
Shaken (vodka) martini |
9 |
0.641 |
0.002 |
(df=21) P=0.0271 |
0.641 |
0.646 |
0.635 |
||
Stirred (vodka) martini |
14 |
3.259 |
0.010 |
3.259 |
3.281 |
3.238 |
|||
Polar Ice Vodka |
6 |
84.340 |
12.319 |
84.340 |
116.013 |
52.667 |
|||
Hiram Walker's Crystal Gin |
36 |
58.300 |
14.100 |
58.300 |
86.796 |
29.804 |
|||
Stock Dry Vermouth |
3 |
1.900 |
0.500 |
1.900 |
4.052 |
-0.251 |
|||
|
|||||||||
Sample |
No. of samples |
Mean (mmol/L) |
SE (mmol/L) |
Mean (mmol/L) |
|||||
Shaken (gin) martini |
8 |
0.056 |
0.005 |
0.056 |
0.068 |
0.044 |
|||
Stirred (gin) martini |
9 |
0.060 |
0.009 |
0.060 |
0.081 |
0.039 |
|||
Shaken (vodka) martini |
4 |
0.002 |
0.001 |
0.002 |
0.004 |
-0.001 |
|||
Stirred (vodka) martini |
4 |
0.002 |
0.000 |
0.002 |
0.003 |
0.000 |
|||
Polar Ice Vodka |
3 |
0.000 |
0.000 |
0.000 |
0.000 |
0.000 |
|||
Hiram Walker's Crystal Gin |
3 |
0.129 |
0.016 |
0.129 |
0.199 |
0.059 |
|||
Stock Dry Vermouth |
3 |
0.095 |
0.004 |
0.095 |
0.111 |
0.080 |
|||
t-Test Probability |
|||||||||
Ttests of significance: Probability of identity |
2-tailed |
||||||||
Shaken (gin) martini/Shaken (vodka) martini |
0.0013155 |
||||||||
Stirred (gin) martini/Stirred (vodka) martini |
4.17e-06 |
Contributors: CCT originated the idea of studying martini antioxidant
activity. LD and CN performed the antioxidant assays for vocka martinis,
with assistance from Michelle Chartrand. JW performed the Folin Phenol
analyses and performed the statistical analysis of the antioxidant
activity and Folin Phenol analysis of the samples and the comparison to
previous data for gin martinis. MH and JRT coordinated the study, aided
in the statistical analysis, suggested appropriate tests and controls to
perform in group meetings, and were mainly responsible for writing the
paper. JW, CCT, LD, and CN suggested editorial changes to the text. JRT
and MH are guarantors of the paper.
Funding: Except for MH and JRT, all staff on the project were summer
students supportedby Work Study, Canada Manpower, Youth Opportunities
Unlimited Ontario, and by grants from Labatt Breweries to MH and JRT.
Corby Distilleries supplied samples of vodka and vermouth..
Competing Interests:: The research grants from Labatt Breweries were
used for a portion of the laboratory supplies, a portion of expenses
incurred by CCT, JW, CN and LD in attending the conference of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in 1999, 2000, and
2001.
J Wahlman, research assistant
Lai Dinh, research assistant
C Nguyen, research assistant
C C Trevithick, research assistant
J R Trevithick, Professor.
Department Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of
Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C1
M Hirst, Professor,
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine and
Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C1
References:
1. C C Trevithick, M M Chartrand, J Wahlman, F Rahman, M Hirst, J R
Trevithick. Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant
activities of martinis. BMJ 1999;319: 1600-1602.
2. Trevithick, C.C., Vinson, J.A., Caulfeild, J., Rahman, F.,
Derksen, T., Bocksch, L., Hong, S., Stefan, A., Teufel, K., Wu, N., M.A.,
Hirst, M., and Trevithick, J.R. Is ethanol an important antioxidant in
alcoholic beverages associated with risk reduction of cataract and
atherosclerosis? Redox Reports 1999;4:89-93.
Competing interests: 7
The response from Mr. Andresen which suggests that Commander Bond only orders his martinis shaken in the movies is not correct. Also, as others have noted, Bond's vodka martini is made with both gin and vodka. The actual recipe is quoted below.
Bond...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.
-- James Bond, "Casino Royale", ch. 7, 1953
When I'm -- er -- concentrating, I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made.
-- James Bond, "Casino Royale", ch. 7, 1953
Bond was satisfied with the drink, but recommended to the barman that he might get better results if he used a vodka made from grain instead of potatoes. He later decided to name this drink "The Vesper" after his beautiful female co-spy in the novel.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Cousin,
I'm very glad to see that there are brilliant successors of our
ancestor Richard Trevithick, who invented train in XIXth century.
Perhaps I should suggest you to investigate effects of Champagne upon
experts on ESB ? So it would be a very helpful study for better relations
between our countries...
Kind regards
Jacques Trevidic
Pharmacien
Centre Hospitalier Charcot
Le Trescoet - BP 47
56854 CAUDAN Cedex
Competing interests: No competing interests
Sir
The biochemistry team from London Ontario, writing in the issue for 18-25
December (1), must be congratulated on their enterprise in discovering
that a mixture of gin and vermouth has far more antioxidant activity than
either alone and that this activity becomes mysteriously more powerful
after
shaking. It is however difficult to know how accurately their findings
are a model for interpreting Commander James Bond's health status.
First,
the curious synergism between antioxidant capacities of the two liquors
suggests that the proportions of each are likely to influence the final
result substantially. The test martini consisted of 2 parts gin:1 part
vermouth, but this would hardly meet the needs of a practised martini
drinker like Mr Bond.
Cocktail expert David Embury sets out 3.5:1 to 7:1
as the acceptable range for medium to dry martinis (2) and Mr Bond appears
to agree with this. His biographer, Ian Fleming, was able to document the
agent's preferred recipe only once, but this was 6 parts gin:2 parts
vodka:1 part vermouth (3). As well, the Bond drink specified Kina Lillet
in place of normal vermouth. It is possible that Mr Fleming misheard the
details but, if Bond did favour this aperitif over the standard Lillet
vermouth, then he was also ingesting a sizeable slug of quinine along with
the pharmacopoeia of other herbs. Thus, the Ontario study may have
underestimated the medicinal power of a true Bond martini.
Mr Embury,
incidently, notes that when a martini is shaken, not stirred, it then
becomes a Bradford (2). One can see why Mr Bond preferred not to be too
correct.
1. Trethivick CC, Chartrand MM, Wahlman J, Rahman F, Hirst M,
Trevithick JR. Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidan
actvities of martinis. BMJ 1999; 319: 1600-1602.
2. Embury DA. The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. Faber & Faber,
London, 1953.
3. Fleming I. Casino Royale. Jonathon Cape, London, 1953.
Professor C Bell
Head, Dept of Physiology
Director of Preclinical Studies, School of Medicine
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2, Ireland
Competing interests: No competing interests
After reading a few of the responses I want to make a simple clarification: In Europe the classic Martini cocktail is prepared with 2 parts Gin and 1 part Vermouth. It is only in the US that the volume of vermouth in a Martini cocktail has been minimized. Bond is European and many of his 'antics' occurred outside the US. Therefore the recipe used in the study was respective of the Martini's Bond consumed.
In fact, Bond could be seen as somewhat of a heretic because the Classic Martini is stirred, not shaken, because as some respondents have pointed out shaking bruises the gin.
Cheers,
Andy
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Sir.
If I could say two words to Trevithick and colleagues (1),
they would be these: "Vodka!" and "ice!"
I thank the authors for their informative account of the measurement of
antioxidant properties of alcoholic drinks. Their findings do not support
the thesis that wine is beneficial but other types of alcohol are not (for
example, 2,3). The results are consistent with Gaziano et al (4) who
assert that it is alcohol per se rather than the specific type of
alcoholic beverage that, in moderation, reduces risk of cardiovascular and
other diseases.
Yet I have two concerns about their study.
First, James Bond drinks Vodka
Martinis, shaken, not stirred, even though the traditional cocktail is
made with Gin. Thus the central finding that Mr Bond's peculiarly good
health could be accounted for by his drinking habits remains untested.
Second, why was the potential role of ice (an essential ingredient in
Martini making) not evaluated?
References
1 Trevithick CC, Chartrand MM, Wahlman J, Rahman F, Hirst M,
Trevithick JR. Shaken, not stirred, bioanalytical study of the
antioxidant activities of martinis. Br Med J 1999; 319: 1600-2.
2 Klatsky AL, Armstrong MA. Alcoholic beverage choice and risk of
coronary artery disease mortality, do red wine drinkers fare best. Am J
Cardiol 1993; 71: 467-9.
3 Wannamethee SG, Shaper AG. Type of alcoholic drink and risk of
major CHD events and all cause mortality. Am J Public Health 1999; 89:
685-90.
4 Gaziano JM, Hennekens CH, Godfried SL et al. Type of alcoholic
beverage and risk of myocardial infarction. Am J Cardiol 1999; 83: 52-7.
Dr Nicholas Walker
Consultant Psychiatrist
Ravenscraig Hospital,
Inverkip Road,
Greenock,
Inverclyde PA16 9HA,
Scotland
Competing interests: No competing interests
It is amazing how easy is to publish any research no matter how crazy
it could seem when it is made in the so called "first world".
I've had a lot of fun with this paper as well as with the one by Umpierre
SA, Hill JA, Anderson DJ. Effect of "Coke" on sperm motility. N Engl J Med
1985, Nov
21;313(21):1351.
When I tell things like that to medical students they couldn't believe
that somebody have enough time and resources to spend on these matters.
I hope that you will have so open a mind for papers coming from developing
countries.
Sincerely
Competing interests: No competing interests
I am very impressed with the study by Trevithick et al on a problem
that has intrigued many martini drinkers for a long time. However, it only
goes part of the way to telling us what we need to know.
The study is certainly clear on the health benefits. Shaken martinis
have twice the antioxidant effect of stirred martinis, so those of us who
drink our martinis stirred should obviously drink twice as many of them to
enjoy as healthy a life as Mr Bond.
However, a more fundamental question remains: can anyone really taste
the difference? I recently tried an (admittedly underpowered) experiment,
in which I prepared two martinis, one shaken and one stirred. Both were
made from six parts Stolichnaya vodka to one part Noilly Prat vermouth
(and were thus more akin to Mr Bond's favourite drink than the variety of
martini investigated by Trevithick et al). I gave them, blinded, to four
guests at a party, none of whom was able to express a clear preference.
Obviously, this was only a preliminary experiment. Whether it could
be replicated in a larger sample is an important question that requires
further research, which I will be more than happy to do if someone will
provide the funding.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis
Loping towards the age of forty, Ian Fleming found himself on the island of Jamaica in the West Indies. The tall man with black hair looked across the turquoise of the ocean and took a long draw on a half-smoked cigarette. He had set his gun-sights on producing his first thriller. Up to this moment, he had roved in the murk of espionage and worked on the London circuit in his guise as a foreign affairs correspondent. Searching for a name with brevity and muscularity, his enquiring eye spotted a table-book on ornithology by an author with an unassuming name. The writer was an American. And Fleming had found the name he wanted.
Fleming is famous for his brainchild and alter ego, James Bond, the widely loved spy encoded as Double-O-Seven by the Secret Service, and whose adventures are catalogued in fourteen thrillers through a spare prose inked onto the page by the clatter of a portable typewriter. Ian came from a privileged upper class, as the layer was defined in the British society of the early twentieth century. His bloodline was Scottish notwithstanding the Roman-black hair, a credential which expressly defined the physicality of James Bond.
Fleming, a bon viveur of no small pretensions, ordered a gold-plated typewriter from the Royal Typewriter Company Of New York to generate a line of books which form the envelope around his legend. Knowledge from the first four decades of his life was shoehorned into thrillers which became best-sellers though spurned by a nose-turning literati which struggled to match a tenth of his popularity. The intelligentsia of the day critiqued Ian’s formulaic books with the same violence depicted in his brusque, technicoloured worlds. But the books were written for men who experienced ordinary emotions, and James Bond is mostly the mirrored image of Ian Lancaster Fleming the man.
Commencing with “Casino Royale” in 1953, the lion’s share of the Bond output appeared in the same decade in which Richard Doll achieved salience by publishing in the British Medical Journal a paper which first described the link between smoking and lung cancer. Professor Sir Richard Doll, a landmark life in the field of epidemiology, showed that the risk of death was twice more likely in a smoker than in a never-smoker. His contributions form the foundation of modern epidemiology.
Though avoiding cancer despite years of prodigious smoking, the coronary arteries of Ian Fleming’s heart became narrowed by encrustations of atheroma and he began experiencing pangs of angina which in his perceptual orbit of villains he labelled a return of “the iron claw.” These expressions of thoracic disease failed to curtail draughts from cigarettes set in Dunhill holders and the driving of cars at a breakneck speed through long routes of alpine grand-touring. His fine mind always charmed by exceptionality, Fleming bestowed a muscular 4.5-litre Bentley on James Bond and saluted a contemporary by writing that Bond’s car was fitted with “the Amherst Villiers supercharger.” Villiers was the polymathic Englishman who designed a rotor which blew a greater amount of air and petrol – the combustible charge – down into the cylinders to amplify or supercharge engine performance. The illustrious engineer from the Home Counties had plainly caught the attention and admiration of Ian Fleming. Amherst Villiers survives in the popular imagination not for his mechanical innovations, but more for being “the man who supercharged Bond.”
From a distance, mainstream audiences believe James Bond to have a penchant for gourmet cuisine at a table of The Savoy. But those who know Bond well know that he can be simplistic despite his complexities, and his gastronomic mainstay is a plate of scrambled eggs. Ian Fleming reflected his own tastes onto the page and shared his love of scrambled eggs with his agile protagonist. The Bondian predilection for eggs is perfect for athleticism since in the science of foodstuffs the egg provides a complete measure of nutriment.
Under the intensity of running one rectangle of paper through his golden typewriter after another, sitting in a Jamaican bungalow he had custom-built and christened “Goldeneye,” Ian smoked and drank with indulgence under the streams of sunshine which sifted through the jalousies onto his rippling keys. The intellectual strain behind the gestation of a book every year exposed his body to an enormous deluge of chemicals. The last of the Bond novels, “The Man With The Golden Gun,” retained the glamour and the anxiety and the violence.
As the tobacco toxins sullied his coronaries, the “iron claw” of atheroma ratcheted up its firmness and a first heart attack imbalanced the famed writer’s sensorium in 1961. Three years later in 1964, acute coronary ischaemia precipitated collapse and led to his final moments at the age of fifty-six. Ian Lancaster Fleming, the man who will always be the best version of Bond, adored bountifully by his admirers, today lies buried in the village of Sevenhampton in the south of England, a long way from Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
A debate of Roman proportions is unleashed whenever the particulars of Bond’s drinks are discussed. The Vodka Martini is the signature of Bond sat elbowed at the bar with the air of a spy who is also a sophisticate. There is no description which bests that crafted by Fleming in the first book, Casino Royale, using a short-sentenced 1950s prose which is often implausibly both muscular and fragile :
He 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.
Chapter 7, Casino Royale by Ian Fleming; Jonathan Cape, London 1953.
Competing interests: No competing interests