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The Vesper
by Rophi
 Shake the ingredients until ice cold and serve in a deep champagne goblet with a large thin slice of lemon peel. Ok, here's the whole story according to the folks over at the James Bond Dossier (tjbd.co.uk): The recipe that appears in the film is exactly the same as the drink that James Bond orders in Ian Fleming’s book. There are a couple of problems with this recipe though, the first being that Kina Lillet hasn’t been available for years; the product name was first changed to plain Lillet, and later Lillet Blanc. But more importantly the product was reformulated in the 1980s to make it less bitter by reducing the quinine content, so even if you do buy Lillet Blanc (or Lillet Blonde as it is called in some territories) the taste will be different. The second problem is simply that the alcohol content of Gordon’s gin has been reduced since the book was first published. Gordon’s is just 37.5% alcohol by volume, a shadow of its former self, and these two changes affect both the flavour and the strength of the drink. A solution to these problems proposed by David Wondrich in Esquire magazine is to change the ingredients slightly: ·Use Tanqueray instead of Gordon’s gin ·100-proof Stolichnaya vodka ·Replace Kina Lillet with Lillet Blanc ·Use 1/8 teaspoon quinine powder to restore the Kina to Lillet - or 2 dashes of bitters can be used as a last resort. Kina Lillet A traditional Kina Lillet was created at the end of the 19th century in France, where wine-based tonics flavoured with quinine were popular. Such drinks are known in France as quinquinas due to the addition of the quinine, a bitter ingredient that is extracted from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, or "kina kina". The ingredient acts as a muscle relaxant and has been used for centuries to treat malaria. Kina Lillet was launched in 1895 as an apéritif and tonic and quickly became known as "the apéritif of Bordeaux". In addition to the wine and quinine, it consisted of a blend of fruit liqueurs. 1920s the company launched Lillet Dry for the English market, which was usually mixed with gin, while the company reduced the prominence of Kina in the name and sometime in the 1930s Kina seems to have been dropped altogether. A further name change occurred in the 1960s, after Lillet Rouge was introduced; the original product became known as Lillet Blanc (or Lillet Blonde depending on territory), a name which is retained today. James Bond and Kina Lillet The 1950s saw a revival in the fashion for cocktails and Lillet became popular once more in England - "Everyone enjoys and gin and Lillet" ran the ad - and the drink took off in the United States. This coincided with Ian Fleming getting down to writing his "spy story to end all spy stories", which included the recipe for James Bond's first contribution to the cocktail world, the Vesper (overshadowed later by the Vodka martini of course). |
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