Name: Reversed Vesper and Tonic 'Martini'
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Gin; 30 ml Vodka; 15 ml Blanc quinquina/kina; 15 ml Aromatized wine; 5 ml Becherovka liqueur; 2.5 ml Grenadine syrup; 2.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 15 ml Tonic water

Reversed Vesper & Tonic 'Martini'
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Serve in a Martini glass

Ingredients:
1 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
1 oz	Ketel One Vodka
¹⁄₂ oz	Blanc quinquina/kina (e.g. Mattei Cap Corse, Bonal or Kina L'Aér
¹⁄₂ oz	Aromatized wine (e.g. Lillet Blanc)
¹⁄₆ oz	Becherovka liqueur
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Monin Grenadine Syrup
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
¹⁄₂ oz	Thomas Henry Tonic Water

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
SHAKE first 7 ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
TOP with tonic water.
EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

16th January 2025 is It's International Hot and Spicy Food Day

Review:

Bittersweet and Martini in style but with the hard edges smoothed and a hint of eastern spice added. Perhaps more a digestivo than an aperitivo.

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Variant:

Vesper Martini
May Vesper
Reverse Vesper Martini
Reversed Vesper & Tonic
Smoking Gun Vesper

History:

Created in 2008 by yours truly at the Cabinet Room, London, England.

James Bond named his favourite style of Martini (Vesper) after the beautiful Russian agent Vesper Lynd. This version is 'Reversed' due to the dramatically increased ratio of aromatised wines. Fittingly, my cocktail mixes East and West European ingredients with the introduction of Becherovka. And where there is Becherovka, there should be tonic water (see Be-ton).

I originally made this with 5ml of homemade pomegranate syrup to add much-needed sweetness (to counter kina bitterness) as a fitting blood-like syrup. Swapping to commercial grenadine added too much colour and flavour; hence, now equal parts sugar and grenadine syrup.

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

One serving of Reversed Vesper & Tonic 'Martini' contains 212 calories

Alcohol content:

1.7 standard drinks
20.2% alc./vol. (20.2° proof)
23.2 grams of pure alcohol

More After dinner/digestif cocktails
More Aperitivo/aperitif cocktails
More Bittersweet (e.g. Negroni) cocktails
More Martini-style cocktails
More Spirit-forward cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Susie Bright

16th January at 00:58

Okay, don’t hate me, but having lost my Becherovka in a senseless “accident de cabinet,” I took a discerning eye to my remaining liqueurs and decided to try Kümmel instead. I think it is SUBLIME. Everything else, as described.

Simon Difford

16th January at 07:29

I look forward to trying. Perhaps turned out to be a happy accident! Out of interest, what brand of kummel did you use?

1 reply

John CARR

5th October 2024 at 13:41

Wow. Beautiful layering of flavours. Initially sweet and fruity, quickly opening up to dry herbal qualities and wonderful quinine bitterness on the tongue. Very good indeed.

james McMakin

28th May 2024 at 20:44

Love this drink. However sometimes I up the becherovka to 10ml, use 5ml real grenadine and 5ml sugar syrup. Then I make into a long drink by adding one large ice ball and top off with tonic using a Collins glass. My girlfriend suggested that it is now a Bonded Vesper and Tonic.