pHesper Martini

“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.”

generations of bartenders have worked their way through it. Starting with the fact that purists would of course never shake a martini and that gin and vodka in the same drink make little sense, another obstacle is that Lillet has been producing the white wine aperitif formerly known as KINA LILLET without cinchona bark since 1985, making it rather irrelevant.

The pHenomenal Tonic bar spoon in this recipe makes up for this.

Another way can work like this:

6 cl Humboldt Ry Dry Gin
2 cl vodka
1 cl Cap Corse Grand Quinquina
Lemon zest as garnish

Cap Corse is an excellent quinquina (a type of white vermouth made bitter not by wormwood but by cinchona bark) and probably the best remaining substitute for KINA LILLET.

The actually frowned upon shaking can indeed be useful, it makes the drink very cold very quickly,
of course also waters it down, but perhaps that’s not so bad for the cool head of a spy…

…or you can simply leave the Vesper Martini alone, because even the inventor found it undrinkable:

In a letter to the editor published in the Manchester Guardian on April 5, 1958, Fleming admits:
“to create an illusion of depth I had to fit Bond out with some theatrical props…with distinctive cigarettes…
I proceeded to invent a cocktail for Bond (which I sampled some months later and found unpalatable).”