Spirit-Forward · Aperitivo · Autumn

Vesper

Gin and vodka with Lillet Blanc, shaken and served up with a lemon zest. Bond ordered it; bartenders have argued about it ever since.

Base: Gin
Glass: Martini glass
Method: Shake
Strength: 28% ABV

Ingredients

45 mlGin1 swap
Any London dry ginhigh
Depends on the brand’s botanicals
15 mlVodka1 swap
Any neutral vodkahigh
Little change
7.5 mlLillet Blanc

How to make

Technique

Shake · 10–15s

Shaking chills the drink fast while adding dilution and a light texture.

Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes.
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Serve

Glass

Martini glassAlso fine: Coupe glass, Nick & Nora glass

Garnish

Garnish with lemon zest.Twist the peel over the surface first — that spray of oil is most of what you smell.

Taste & nutrition

28%ABV

170kcal

1.86Drinks

StrengthBoozy

Sweet to dryBalanced

Estimated from ingredient amounts and assumed ABVs — not a lab measurement.

Good to know

Chill your glass first for a colder, better-tasting drink.

History

Year1953

PlaceLondon, England (fictional)

Created byIan Fleming (James Bond)

The Vesper was invented on the page by Ian Fleming in his 1953 novel Casino Royale, ordered by James Bond and named after the character Vesper Lynd. It combines gin and vodka with Lillet, shaken until ice-cold — the source of Bond's famous "shaken, not stirred." Strong and bracing, it leapt from fiction into real bars. It remains the most literary of cocktails.

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