A Break in the Wine and Are Frivolities to Show Off Our Lovely Vesper Martinis on our 65th Anniversary!

Is it creepy that I didn’t have to reference Casino Royale to quote the above lines exactly? Yeah. It’s a bit creepy, but I don’t care!

The perfect Vesper Martini consists of three measures of Gordon’s Gin, one measure of Vodka, a half-measure of Kina Lillet, shaken over ice and with a thin slice of lemon peel added. HOWEVER, it would seem (as we suspected) that Kina Lillet exists in few places beyond the Monte Negro of the 1950s. My local expert at the Boozatorium in my home town suggested we try substituting Dubonnet gold for the Lillet Blonde that we can never get our grubby paws upon. We should say here (myself, along with my crazed BondBuddy Annette) that we would be very happy to receive a bottle of this fine beverage if any of our readers have a great uncle twice removed who might have some dustily lurking at the back of some ancient cedar liquor cabinet in the study. We’d pay good money if you’d sneak in while he’s napping and steal it for us. We’re not sure we want the Quinine it’s named for, but at least we’d be sure not to contract Malaria while we’re drinking it!

As it is, we were forced to go with Dubonnet Gold, the next best thing, and (we’re told) the closest to the flavour of Kina Lillet that we’re likely to find. As our experiments continued, we discovered that we quite liked its flavour and began to add a full measure to each subsequent Vesper we mixed, shook, and poured. By the third mixing, shaking, and pouring, we couldn’t have cared less about the flavour. Not being regular hard liquor consumers, our discerning senses began to fuzz slightly at the shaking of each new batch, and we began to see things in the film we’d never seen before, despite seeing it together an estimated 65 times over the past 18 months. Ground control to Major Tom.

Here is an artsy “before” shot of the fixings.

Here, Annette mixes the ingredients in the Martini shaker she originally bought me as part of my Casino Royale Survival Kit.

And here are the lovely and perfect finished products.

If we do say so ourselves.

Seriously, don’t try this at home if you have to drive anywhere. We were very responsible, even as we wondered how James Bond could have two of these things in quick succession, have a Digitalis-induced heart attack, and still manage to win all of Le Chiffre’s $15,000,000 pot. I suppose habit makes one more able to assimilate the booze and carry on normal activities, and lord knows James Bond could pack away the Martinis. We’re less adept at that particular skill, and won’t be sitting down to any high-stakes Poker games with a few of these under our belts in the forseeable future.