shaken, not stirred
Take the all-important issue of shaking rather than stirring the martini. In 1999, a group of students at the University of Western Ontario in Canada led by Colleen Trevithick (and overseen by her father John, a professor of biochemistry) decided to test Bond’s preference in a series of experiments on gin and vodka martinis.
They studied the martinis’ ability to deactivate hydrogen peroxide - a substance used to bleach hair or disinfect scrapes, and a potent source of the free radicals linked to ageing and disease.
While the detailed chemistry is not fully understood, martinis were much more effective than their basic ingredients - such as gin or vermouth - at deactivating hydrogen peroxide, and about twice as effective when shaken.
The martini must contain an antioxidant that deals with the peroxide, and which works better after shaking. (The olives that are normally added might also have an effect, but were left out as being “too difficult to model”.)
In their analysis of the results in the British Medical Journal, the team concluded, reasonably enough, that Bond’s excellent state of health “may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders”.
[the Telegraph]
6 months ago