Vesper
ClassicIBA OfficialGin, vodka, and Lillet. Shaken, not stirred.
Bracing, crisp, and aromatic. Gin leads with its botanical backbone, vodka adds weight and a clean chill, and Lillet Blanc lends a faintly bittersweet, citrus-and-honey note that rounds the edges. Colder and more potent than a standard Martini, with a lemon-oil lift on the nose.
Ingredients
- 3 oz Gin
- 1 oz Vodka
- 0.5 oz Lillet Blanc
- Lemon twist · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Add the gin, vodka, and Lillet Blanc to a shaker with ice.
- 2
Shake until ice-cold — famously, shaken, not stirred.
- 3
Strain into a chilled martini glass.
- 4
Garnish with a large, thin lemon twist.
The Story
The Vesper is James Bond's own invention, dictated to a bartender in Ian Fleming's 1953 novel *Casino Royale* and named for the double agent Vesper Lynd. Bond specifies three measures of gin, one of vodka, and a half of Kina Lillet, "shaken very well until it's ice-cold." Kina Lillet is long gone — today's Lillet Blanc stands in — but the drink endures as the most literary cocktail ever written, and a bracing one at that.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
