How did James Bond do it ?!
I had a very long day so at the end of the work day, I poured myself a Vesper. I use the traditional champagne glass as dictated in the text of Ian Flemming’s Casino Royale. My glass is just a little less than 6oz. It’s probably close to what Mr. Flemming wrote for James Bond. So, let’s do the math …
The recipe for a Vesper calls for Gin, Vodka, and Lillet. I read the labels on my bottles and discovered the ABV (alcohol by volume) was 47.3%, 50%, and 17% respectively. The ration is 3:1:˝. So that is 3oz at 47.3% plus 1oz at 50% plus ˝oz at 17%. this averages out to 44.5% over the 4˝oz. Let’s scale that up to 5oz.
If we compare that to a 12oz beer at 4˝% it would take a bit more than 4 beers.
If we compare that to a 6oz glass of wine at 11˝% it would take almost 3˝ glasses of wine.
Neither of these seem to be excessive until you think that the Vesper typically would be consumed in about 30 minutes. A decadent night could have two of these before dinner. That’s 8 beers or 7 glasses of wine in about an hour !
