Vesper
A twist on Dry Martini
Prep time:
Ian Fleming wrote it into Casino Royale with exact measures, and those measures still work. The one martini you are allowed to shake.
Ingredients
- 60 ml London Dry gin
- 20 ml vodka
- 10 ml Lillet Blanc
- A large lemon twist
Preparation
- Chill the coupe thoroughly, ideally in the freezer.
- Add the gin, vodka and Lillet to the shaker with plenty of ice.
- Shake hard for about ten seconds, until the tin frosts over.
- Fine-strain into the chilled coupe.
- Express the lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.
Bartender’s notes
What does James Bond drink?
It depends on the novel, and it is almost never this. Bond orders the Vesper only once, in Casino Royale (1953), the first book in the series, and names it after Vesper Lynd, the agent he falls for. When he orders a martini in the rest of the novels it is usually a dry one made with vodka: the first arrives in Moonraker, the third book. The famous line does not come from here either. “Shaken, not stirred” first appears in Diamonds Are Forever (1956), and Bond says it himself in Dr. No (1958). In Casino Royale what he asks for is to have it shaken “very well until it’s ice-cold”.
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