Message 19518 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> I didn't know that but I'm not surprised.  Bond has to pull his 
> obligatory "Shaken, not stirred" line once per film, but that's it.   
>  
> 
> In "Tomorrow Never Dies" Brosnan (as Bond) is doing straight shots of 
> Smirnoff.  
> 
> BTW, I have a regular who loves to order "a Caucasian".  Was this 
> term in use for a White Russian before "The Big Lebowski"?  I only 
> became aware of it after the film came out (one of my favorites).   

Forgive me for not actually remembering the history, but I do remember reading 
once where the name came from.  I don't believe I read anything about it being 
put in the bit lebowski, but I do seem to remember it being presented as an 
advertising gimmick.

That's what I do remember, now I'm going to try to fill in the blank with an 
assumption.  Since Smirnoff is an american vodka that has so desperately tried 
to hide the fact that it's not russian, I'm willing to be it was them.  This 
is sorta added to by the fact that the other ingredient to the drink is of 
Mexican origin, a country that historically has had very little to do with the 
russians.  Logically, if any vodka company would have produced a drink with a 
mexican ingredient, it's more likely to be here in north america.  
Furthermore, with the drink having 'russian' in the title (i look at that 
sorta mockingly), I wouldn't doubt that Smirnoff would have named it that way 
to further the concept of their vodka being of russian descent.

I did also read a book called 'Big Shots' which retold a lot of history on 
different brand name liquor.  The people who were trying to sell Smirnoff were 
originally trying to push it as tasteless and odorless whiskey.  Like a lot of 
companies, they also started inventing drink recipes to show off their 
product.  They also frequently did everything they could to play off of any 
problems that the US had with Russia.  I'm theorizing that it was their 
creation, and I'm not willing to stake anything on it (I just simply don't 
know, I'm just guessing), but it seems like a pretty likely origin of the name.

Certainly a damn fine drink...I like mine with vanilla vodka now (very close 
to the same, but with a little longer aftertaste of vanilla).

-- 
Cody