James Bond drinks: the Americano

While James Bond’s drink is popularly thought to be the vodka martini, a breakdown of the books shows that in fact he favours whisky more than any other drink, especially when it’s Bourbon.

His first drink is an Americano, which he orders in Casino Royale – yes, the Vesper appears in it too, but that’s later – and the drink reappears in From Russia With Love (he orders two while at Rome Ciampino airport en route to Istanbul and one on the Orient Express) and while killing time in Paris in From A View To A Kill, where we learn two things; it is not a solid drink; and the cheapest way to improve a poor drink is with expensive soda water, so he stipulates Perrier.

The recipe is as follows:

1 measure Campari
1 measure Cinzano

Poor over ice, top up with soda water and add a slice of lemon.

The Americano isn’t a drink you find often in bars, but was invented in Milan in the 1860s. It was originally called a “Milano-Torino” after the cities from where two main ingredients came from, but the name was changed to “Americano” during prohibition when the Italians noticed how many American tourists ordered the cocktail.