So it’s Goodbye Mr Bond, or rather Goodbye to Daniel Craig after five Bond films. We need to toast him with a Goodbye Mr Bond Cocktail !

  photo Pixabay

The five were Craig’s debut Casino Royale (2006, 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating), Quantum of Solace (2008, 64%), Skyfall (2012, 92%), Spectre (2015, 63%) and now No Time To Die (2021, 83%).  You can see how all the Bond films are rated at Rotten Tomatoes.  Daniel Craig has an average rating of 79%. That’s pretty good but still below Sean Connery’s 83%.  That is thanks to his holding the top three slots with Dr No, From Russia with Love and at No.1 Goldfinger.

Here’s a newspaper advert promoting Goldfinger:

   photo Pixabay

“Goodbye Mr Bond”

Remember where that line comes from ? It’s from You Only Live Twice and is spoken by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the white cat stroking Head of SPECTRE, played brilliantly by Donald Pleasance:

  photo Wikipedia

Of course it’s not Goodbye to Mr Bond. It’s Goodbye to Blofeld because Bond, played by Sean Connery, outmanoeuvres him thanks to a nifty rocket-firing cigarette.

A Bond Cocktail

Bond has been into cocktails from the start.  People immediately think of a Vodka Martini “shaken not stirred”.  Conventionally cocktails with cloudy ingredients like juices are shaken because the movement of the ice gives better aeration. Those with clear ingredients are stirred, but Bond was always a rule-breaker. According to Difford’s Guide Bond also enjoyed Americano, Dry Martini, Negroni, Old-Fashioned, Stinger and Vespers cocktails.

Although the Old-Fashioned is one of the oldest cocktail recipes (early-19th century) and one of the simplest, it is still one of the most popular.  In the movie ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’, the boozy pilot Jim Backus decides to make the cocktail and leaves passenger Mickey Rooney to fly the plane. When Rooney asks, “What if something happens?”, Backus replies, “What could happen to an Old-Fashioned?”.
Looks like Bond is drinking an Old-Fashioned in this picture:

photo Pixabay

So our Bond Cocktail for 2021 is an Old-Fashioned. 2 parts bourbon, 1.5 parts rye, 0.5 part sugar, 9 dashes of Bob’s Abbott’s bitters (or use Angostura if you haven’t got Bob’s to hand). Garnish with a slice of orange or a maraschino cherry.

 photo Jason Wagner / Pixabay

So here’s to Bond, James Bond !

Forthcoming Cocktail Book

The above is an extract from Shaker, a brilliant App containing some 400 superb cocktail and mocktail recipes that will help you to plan your party with panache.  Shaker is a sister to Cocktails & Kicktails – Life-saving Recipes and Rhymes to Lift Body and Soul, a light-hearted book of anecdotes, recipes and rhymes, with beautiful photographs and cartoons that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, which will be published by Rowan Books on 1st November 2021 priced at £13.99. Learn more about this forthcoming book.  Shaker will be downloadable as a stand-alone App for £3.99 or is free if you buy Cocktails & Kicktails from Rowan Books.