The Vesper: James Bond's Own Martini

In Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale of 1953, James Bond orders a dry martini in a deep Champagne goblet and then spells out exactly how it should be made: three measures of Gordon's gin, one of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken until ice cold, with a large thin slice of lemon peel.

Bond says he means to patent the drink as soon as he thinks of a good name. The name becomes Vesper, after Vesper Lynd, the woman he works with in the book.

The drink was probably not Fleming's own idea. In his friend Ivar Bryce's copy of Casino Royale, Fleming wrote a dedication to Ivar, who mixed the first Vesper and said the good word.

The name is said to come from a joke over evening drinks, when a butler announced that vespers, the evening prayer, were served. Fleming himself wrote in 1958 that he found the drink unpalatable once he tasted it, and it appears in none of the later Bond books. It returned in the films Casino Royale in 2006 and Quantum of Solace in 2008.

Kina Lillet was a French aromatised wine with a distinct quinine bitterness. Production stopped in 1986, so the original cannot be made exactly.

The IBA uses Lillet Blanc, which is softer and sweeter. Those who want to get closer to the bitter quinine note often use Cocchi Americano. Both are wine-based and belong in the fridge once opened.

A martini of only spirits and wine is normally stirred, so it stays clear and silky. The Vesper is shaken, because Bond asks for it. That makes it colder, a little more diluted and slightly cloudy.

Consider making a smaller one than Bond's. His measures made an unusually large drink, about 130 ml of spirits. Our Vesper recipe scales it down to a normal serve with the same proportions.