The Vesper
The Vesper or Vesper Martini is a cocktail made famous by James Bond and first appeared in the 1953 Ian Fleming James Bond book, “Casino Royale.” The cocktail is named after the fictional double agent Vesper Lynd and was created specifically for the character of James Bond, who describes it as his favorite drink.
When Bond orders the Vesper, he provides strict instructions to the bartender. So, those instructions should be followed by any who make it. Bond says: “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”
With all due respect to 007, there’s one change we’d recommend. Shaking a Vesper can result in an overly diluted and less smoothly textured drink—and a Martini isn’t meant to have ice shards floating on its top. The golden rule is to always stir a spirit-only cocktail, and there’s no reason to make an exception here.
This Vesper recipe makes a stiff drink with four ounces of full-proof spirits and a half ounce of lower-proof Lillet blanc. In the book, Bond claims that, when he’s concentrating, he never has more than one drink before dinner. But he likes that one drink to be very large. It’s easy to appreciate such a loophole. But if you want a less boozy drink, you can dial back the volume while keeping the proportions intact.
Ingredients
- 3 ounces gin
- 1 ounce vodka
- 1/2 ounce Lillet blanc aperitif
- Garnish: lemon twist
Steps
- Add the gin, vodka and Lillet blanc into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Express the oils from a lemon twist over the drink, rub the twist along the rim of the glass and drop it into the cocktail.
