No worries though, that’s more an irregularity these days and lots of popular brands like Beefeater are still made to that classic strength and are standard bearers in the Death & Co. On gins, they’ve booted the Gordon’s, which the recipe so specifically mentions, though this isn’t necessarily a bad things as it turns out the Gordon’s of today has been reformulated and doesn’t taste like it would have in 1953, when it was a higher proof. They radically change gins and alter both the proportion of ingredients as well as the technique. bartenders take a lot of liberty with the classic spec. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. It’s one of the only times Bond veers from his usual, the shaken martini, and he never orders the drink again, which you’ll no doubt understand if you know how the story ends.
Ian Fleming is indeed the inventor of the Vesper cocktail, and he has Bond dictate the recipe to the bartender very clearly in Chapter 7 of the 1953 book that the movie takes its name from. There’s all kinds of fun details about this drink because it’s a James Bond drink, and is enjoying a new popularity thanks to an especially memorable scene in the first movie of the Daniel Craig era, Casino Royale. The Vesper cocktail is one of only two classic cocktails in the entire Death & Co.
