The Vesper is the Martini as imagined by Ian Fleming. It combines gin and vodka in one glass, replaces the vermouth with Lillet, and — against every bartender's instinct — is shaken rather than stirred. It is a literary cocktail that escaped the page.
Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.
— Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, 1953Invented in a Novel
The Vesper first appeared in 1953, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, where James Bond dictates the recipe to a barman and names it after the double agent Vesper Lynd. It is one of the very few cocktails whose origin is a paragraph of fiction.
Kina Lillet and Its Ghost
Bond's recipe calls for Kina Lillet, a quinine-spiked aperitif that was reformulated in 1986 into the milder Lillet Blanc. Purists chasing the original bitterness add a dash of quinine, or reach for Cocchi Americano in its place.
Shaken, and Why It's Forgiven
Shaking a spirits-only drink over-dilutes and clouds it — normally a fault. The Vesper is the sanctioned exception: Bond asked for it shaken, and the drink is served that way out of fidelity to the text rather than to technique.
The Martini Family
The classic — gin and dry vermouth, stirred ice-cold, finished with a lemon twist or an olive.
- 2 1/2 ozGin
- 1/2 ozDry vermouth
- 1 dashOrange bitters
A measure of olive brine turns the Martini cloudy, saline, and savoury.
- 2 1/2 ozGin
- 1/2 ozDry vermouth
- 1/2 ozOlive brine
A Martini garnished with a pickled onion — faintly savoury, faintly vegetal.
- 2 1/2 ozGin
- 1/2 ozDry vermouth
- 1 dashOrange bitters