James Bond's favourite vodka martini to make comeback in Spectre
Fans stirred as luxury vodka partnership suggests super-smooth secret agent will be supping his preferred tipple in new film
For half a century the vodka martini - "shaken, not stirred" - has been synonymous with James Bond ever since the secret service agent first uttered the immortal line in Ian Fleming's Dr No.
So purists cried sacrilege when, as part of an estimated £28 million (HK$341 million) tie-in with the most recent Bond movie Skyfall, Daniel Craig clutched a bottle of Heineken in an advertisement for the Dutch brewer.
Aficionados should be heartened, therefore, that normal service could resume with news of a partnership between the makers of Spectre, the new Bond film due for release next November, and a luxury vodka brand.
Hot on the heels of Aston Martin's unveiling of 007's new car, Belvedere Vodka has announced its tie-in to the Bond franchise.
No figures have been released, although president Charles Gibb said it was "the largest global partnership we have done to date".
The result, according to Ajay Chowdhury, president of the James Bond International Fan Club, is "the odds are very short" on Craig ordering up Bond's preferred tipple, with the phrase regularly voted as one of the 100 most famous lines in film history.