The Vesper is a cocktail consisting of gin, vodka, and the French aperitif Lillet (formerly known as Kina Lillet). It was the first cocktail ordered by James Bond in the novel that marked his debut, Ian Fleming’s 1953 Casino Royale. Bond ordered it thus: “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.” The drink is presented as his original on-the-spot invention and at first has no name, but later Bond “borrows” the name of his colleague (later lover and then revealed as a Russian double agent) Vesper Lynd and christens it the Vesper. After her suicide at the end of the book he never drinks it again.
It has long been believed that the drink was created for Fleming at Dukes Hotel in London by famed London Bartender Gilberto Preti, but this has been debunked, as Preti did not begin working at Dukes until almost twenty years after the author’s death (Preti’s place in the story is probably due to the fact that he was apparently once consulted by one of the film Bonds on “how to make a proper Martini,” as Country Life reported in 1995). A much more plausible story is told by Fleming’s longtime friend and fellow Jamaica resident and OSS veteran Ivar Bryce, to whom Fleming had inscribed a copy of Casino Royale “For Ivar, who mixed the first Vesper.” Apparently Fleming pinched the name for the character (and Bryce for the cocktail, which he recalls concocting with Fleming’s assistance) from “a curious drink of frozen rum with fruit and herbs,” presented to him at a country house in Jamaica with the butler’s formal pronouncement that “Vespers are served.”
Although Bond was admirably clear on how to make the drink, its construction today is somewhat vexed due to the persistent rumor that when Lillet’s maker dropped “Kina” (a French word for “quinine”) from the brand’s name in 1986, it also significantly reduced the product’s quinine content and hence bitterness, making faithful reproduction of the drink impossible with the Lillet that still exists. During the early days of the cocktail renaissance, this led to some often unfortunate experiments with quinine powder. Fortunately, as Olivier Londeix has shown in his detailed 1998 independent history of the brand, the reduction in Lillet’s bitterness occurred in 1917, decades before Bryce and Fleming were experimenting with it.
Due to its impeccable pop-culture pedigree, the Vesper still appears on cocktail lists, whether it’s made with Lillet or with some other, more bitter aperitif. As “fictional” drinks go it’s not bad, and with its split base of gin and vodka it is very au courant.
Recipe: Shake well with ice 75 ml gin, 25 ml vodka, and 12 ml Lillet Blonde. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and twist lemon peel over the top.
Fleming, Ian. Casino Royale. London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.
“Gilberto Preti’s Country Life Cocktail.” Country Life, November 2, 1995, 96
Leigh, James. The Complete Guide to the Drinks of James Bond, 2nd ed. Raleigh, NC: lulu.com, 2012.
Londeix, Olivier. Lillet, 1862–1985. Pessac, France: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1998.
By: Angus Winchester and David Wondrich