Cocktail · Spirit-forward
Vesper
Gin, vodka, Lillet Blanc — shaken, famously, not stirred.
How to order it: Bond's spec from Casino Royale, 1953. Lemon peel, ice cold, drink it fast.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 3 oz gin
- 1 oz vodka
- ½ oz Lillet Blanc
- Shake very cold (Bond insists)
- Coupe; lemon peel
The story
Invented not behind a bar but at a typewriter. In Casino Royale, 1953, Ian Fleming had James Bond specify it to the letter — three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half of Kina Lillet, shaken until ice-cold, with a large thin slice of lemon peel — then name it for Vesper Lynd, the double agent who breaks his heart. Bond orders it essentially once and spends the rest of the franchise drinking standard Martinis, which only deepens the mystique. Making one faithfully is now impossible: quinine-bitter Kina Lillet is gone, its modern successor gentler. The Vesper endures as literature's greatest cocktail — a drink that is also a eulogy.
Classic variation
The Vesper is a riff on a classic. Meet the original:
Adjacent pours