Vesper Lynd holds the honour of being the first-ever Bond girl, in the first-ever Bond novel, Casino Royale. Likewise, the cocktail that takes her name is the first and perhaps most famous alcoholic creation from Ian Fleming’s Bond canon. It is a twist on the Martini, but unlike the classic, the Vesper calls for both gin and vodka. The customary dry vermouth of the Martini is replaced in the Vesper with Kina Lillet, an aromatized wine infused with quinine, which was discontinued in 1986. We replace this key ingredient with Cocchi Americano, which we feel best replicates the engaging bitter notes that set this drink apart from its peers.
60ml (2¼fl oz) Gordon’s Gin (or other premium gin)
20ml (¾fl oz) Russian vodka
2 teaspoons Cocchi Americano
TO GARNISH
lemon twist
Measure the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and top up with ice to the brim. Shake vigorously, then strain into a frosted Martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist, spritzed over the glass to express the oils. Drink while very cold.
THE VESPER
“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. Got it?”
“Certainly, monsieur.” The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
“Gosh, that’s certainly a drink,” said Leiter.
Bond laughed. “When I’m . . . er . . . concentrating,” he explained, “I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I can think of a good name.”
CASINO ROYALE
CHAPTER 7. “ROUGE ET NOIR”
“I can’t drink the health of your new frock without knowing your Christian name.”
“Vesper,” she said. “Vesper Lynd.”
Bond gave her a look of inquiry.
“It’s rather a bore always having to explain, but I was born in the evening, on a very stormy evening according to my parents. Apparently they wanted to remember it.” She smiled. “Some people like it, others don’t. I’m just used to it.”
“I think it’s a fine name,” said Bond. An idea struck him. “Can I borrow it?” He explained about the special Martini he had invented and his search for a name for it. “The Vesper,” he said. “It sounds perfect and it’s very appropriate to the violet hour when my cocktail will now be drunk all over the world. Can I have it?”
“So long as I can try one first,” she promised. “It sounds a drink to be proud of.”
“We’ll have one together when all this is finished,” said Bond.
CASINO ROYALE
CHAPTER 8. PINK LIGHTS AND CHAMPAGNE
He knew he must be gaining fast. Loaded as she was the Citroën could hardly better eighty even on this road. On an impulse he slowed down to seventy, turned on his fog-lights, and dowsed the twin Marchals. Sure enough, without the blinding curtain of his own lights, he could see the glow of another car a mile or two down the coast.
He felt under the dashboard and from a concealed holster took out a long-barrelled Colt Army Special .45 and laid it on the seat beside him. With this, if he was lucky with the surface of the road, he could hope to get their tyres or their petrol tank at anything up to a hundred yards.
Then he switched on the big lights again and screamed off in pursuit. He felt calm and at ease. The problem of Vesper’s life was a problem no longer. His face in the blue light from the dashboard was grim but serene.
CASINO ROYALE
CHAPTER 15. BLACK HARE AND GREY HOUND
Vesper is the “evening star” in Latin and Vespers are evening prayers.
Fleming is said to have named the character Vesper Lynd after a cocktail of iced rum, fruit and herbs served to him and his friend Ivar Bryce in an old, isolated plantation house on the north coast of Jamaica. As the two men sat on the veranda chatting to their host, an ancient colonel, the butler came out and announced stiffly, “Vespers are served”.
It is also said that “Vesper Lynd” was a joke to Fleming because it sounds like “West Berlin” spoken in a German accent – an apt name for a Cold War double agent.
Some say that the character of Vesper Lynd was inspired by the spy Christine Granville, whose real name was Krystyna Skarbek, a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. It has been claimed that Fleming had an affair with Granville, whose father’s nickname for her was “Vésperale”.