Tonight’s cocktail is the James Bond inspired Vesper. This cocktail was first described in the book Casino Royale as 3 parts Gordon’s Gin, 1 part vodka, 1/2 part Kina Lillet – shaken until it is very cold before serving in a deep champagne goblet (i.e. a coupe glass) with a large lemon peel added.  I am going to make this cocktail close to the above recipe – but as you now know how I am – I just have to play with it. I have 3 gins here: Tanqueray No. 10, Bombay Sapphire, and Citadelle to play with. The flavor profiles for these 3 gins are very distinct and will produce very different drinks. I also plan to make a slight change to the garnish, but you will have to read down below to see what I did and if it produced the results I expected. Be advised, this cocktail is strong so no drinking and driving or pretending to be James Bond after you have had a few. You have been forewarned…

Chill a martini or coupe glass with ice. Fill a shaker halfway with cracked ice. Add the gin, vodka and lillet to the shaker and shake until very cold. Strain into the chilled glass and garnish with twisted lemon peel.

I made the first Vesper with Citadelle gin which is much less spicy (i.e. pine or juniper flavored) and more flowery (i.e. cucumber, lavender, etc flavored). The additional garnish was to twist an orange peel over the drink after adding the lemon twist to the drink. I only added 1/4 of the orange peel as a garnish to maintain that flavor. I will review the other gins in this drink as the night goes on (or tomorrow if I can’t write later). Enjoy!