Enjoying Lillet the James Bond way

A visit to France in the summer of 2017 was an exciting, sometimes exhausting, but overall memorable experience. Visiting the Palace of Versailles and its extensive gardens in 36°C+ heat was the true test of what one is prepared to endure to see this landmark. The visit was prebooked before we left Cape Town to avoid the long queues, so we had no alternative option but to accommodate the extreme weather conditions.

Prebooking might have limited our choice of weather conditions during our visit, but it did spare us the long queues awaiting us on 21 June 2017 at 9:30, when we arrived at the Palace. Our return trip to Paris that afternoon proved an adventure of its own. Most trains on our planned route had been cancelled owing to the heat affecting the safety of the steel railway tracks. Which it was feared, might buckle under such extreme conditions.

The Paris metro was no walk in the park either with sweltering heat and sweaty fellow commuters. I remember the bright seats at the different metro stations. The bright blue, yellow, green and red. The red seats with their backdrop of a Lillet Blanc advert made me long for a refreshing chilled Lillet on the rocks.

We like Lillet Blanc and had a bottle chilling in the fridge of our apartment in Paris, to enjoy on hot afternoons after a day of exploring the city. We enjoyed it straight, with soda water and with gin, like a martini.

Remembering our trip to Paris in 2017, I recently decided to order a box of six bottles of Lillet from Johannesburg. For some reason it is not available in Cape Town.

After receiving my stock of Lillet Blanc, I decided to explore the other options of serving Lillet. My go-to book for classic cocktails is the Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Cradock, published in 1930. With a selection of 23 cocktails containing Kina Lillet, I had quite a selection of cocktails to try. They have names like Self-Starter Cocktail, Prohibition Cocktail, Maiden’s Prayer Cocktail (No.2), Happier and Happier Cocktail, Great Secret Cocktail, Depth Charge Cocktail, Corpse Reviver (No.2), and many more.

The First Lillet advertising iron plates from 1896

The Lillet Blanc with a reduced quinine flavouring replaced Kina Lillet in 1986. Kina Lillet was manufactured from 1887 to 1986. The original Kina Lillet had quinine liqueur made of cinchona bark from Peru added as one of the ingredients.

Maison Lillet decided to reformulate Lillet in 1985, in collaboration with the Bordeaux University's Institute of Oenology. Both the quinine bitterness and corresponding sweetness were reduced.

In Ian Flemming’s debut 007 novel, Casino Royale, published in 1952, the author had his hero ordering his signature dry martini, “shaken not stirred”. I think this is the first and only time that James Bond gives the recipe of how he likes his cocktail, 'A dry Martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'

'Oui, Monsieur.'

'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon- peel. Got it?'

'Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

'Gosh, that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm-er-concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made.”

In 1952 the Kina Lillet as an ingredient made sense. But for Daniel Craig’s James bond to order it in the 2006 film version of the book, it seemed like some script writer did not do their homework. It just did not ring true to order a cocktail with an ingredient of which the name and formula had changed 20 years before.

My martini cocktail book only refers to this recipe as the James Bond martini. Five years after our visit to Paris we could enjoy Lillet Blanc again. This time made with Ian Flemming’s 1952 recipe for a dry martini and enjoyed in the Towerwater lounge, shaken not stirred.

It was a good way to break the ice (pun intended) of our Lillet adventure at Towerwater this summer.

The Biltong Dry Cocktail

Searching for the recipe for the original Dubonnet cocktail, I discovered the impact of current events at the turn of the 20^th Century in South Africa, on the international cocktail scene.

The legendary head bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London, Harry Craddock, published the Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. The book is still in print today.  The Savoy Cocktail Book contains 750 cocktail recipes. Eleven of these recipes enjoy very South African references in their name and ingredients, one of them is Caperitif.

Harry Craddock in the American Bar - Source: https://sipsmith.com

The American Bar circa 1931 - Source: https://london.eater.com

Caperitif is a vermouth style drink that was manufactured in the early 1900’s by the Cape based, Castle Wine and Brandy Company. Caperitif captured the imagination of bartenders at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel. Caperitif was used extensively, it seems, to make South African inspired cocktails. With the Gold Rush and Second Boer War fresh in the memories of people, they served contemporary cocktails like the Barney Barnato, Cape Town Cocktail, Oom Paul, Spion Kop, and Transvaal, amongst others. The Savoy Cocktail book contains at least 18 cocktails with Caperitif as an ingredient. 

With a supply of Dubonnet, it is a good opportunity to try a range of ‘new’ cocktails. To my surprise, I found a very iconic South African themed cocktail in the Savoy Cocktail book. On page 29 there is a recipe for a Biltong Dry Cocktail.

How to make a Biltong Dry Cocktail

1 Dash Orange Bitters

¼ Dubonnet

¼ Gin

½ Caperitif

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Caperitif had disappeared completely. It has in recent years, been revived by a passionate Danish mixologist who had been searching for this “ghost ingredient”. He teamed up with a South African winemaker and in 2015, the modern version of Caperitif was launched. Thanks to these developments, once popular cocktails like the Biltong Dry, can be revived.

Here are a few hints for the young mixer from page 9 of the Savoy Cocktail Book.

“

1.     Ice is nearly always an absolute essential for any cocktail.

2.     Never use the same ice twice.

3.     Remember that the ingredients mix better in a shaker rather larger than is necessary to contain them.

4.     Shake the shaker as hard as you can: don’t just rock it: you are trying to wake it up, not send it to sleep.

5.     If possible, ice your glasses before using them.

6.     Drink your cocktail as soon as possible.”

Dubonnet and “droëwors”*

*Droëwors is a traditional South African cured sausage

As a consumer, I am apparently categorised as a singular niche market. I am constantly looking for some ingredient that is not readily available. Perhaps I should update my recipe books. On the other hand however, I do enjoy nostalgia and the romanticism of authentic traditional foods and drinks.

When Keith wanted to taste a cocktail preferred by the Queen of Great Britain et cetera, and her mother, while she lived, I thought it should not be difficult to find the ingredients. Keith is firmly of the opinion that the longevity and good health of their majesties, might well be ascribed to their love of this cocktail. It is well known that Her Majesty the Queen enjoys a Dubonnet cocktail before lunch. She prefers her cocktail with two parts Dubonnet and one-part Gordon’s gin (which holds a royal warrant) with two cubes of ice and a lemon slice.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, famously enjoyed the cocktail as her signature cocktail and the cocktail is known as the Queen Mother. One can make your own Queen Mother as follows.

For one person

1 part gin

2 parts Dubonnet

Orange or lemon twist to garnish (optional)

Pour one-part gin and two parts Dubonnet over lots of ice and stir, garnish with orange, lemon, or both.

Dubonnet is a blend of fortified wine, herbs, spices and quinine. It was first sold in 1846 by Parisian chemist Joseph Dubonnet. Dubonnet was a tonic created for French legionnaires so that they might drink quinine to fortify them against malaria during their campaign in North Africa.

My curiosity went beyond the British royals. I needed to find out more about the use of Dubonnet in cocktails. I started with the Savoy Cocktail book, published in 1930. On page 62, the Dubonnet cocktail is given as, ½ Dubonnet, ½ Dry Gin, Stir well and strain into cocktail glass.

The cocktail seemed quite straight forward. The Gordon’s gin, as our gin of choice for cocktails, was on hand. But alas, finding Dubonnet in South Africa, as I discovered, is impossible. I searched every specialty liquor shop in South Africa without success.

My last resort was to import it directly from the UK where I found an online liquor shop that delivered in South Africa. Ordering the six bottles of Dubonnet was very easy. Even the delivery was a breeze after one has paid the import duties, VAT and custom charges, in advance.

The bottles arrived expertly packaged and ahead of schedule. Within days of placing the order, Keith could enjoy his first Queen Mother cocktail. I thought it a perfectly sweet cocktail for a mature lady. Personally, I prefer the mix to be 1 part Dubonnet and 2 parts Dry Gin shaken with lots of ice in a shaker. It is less sweet that way.

On a hot Saturday afternoon, we could enjoy a very English cocktail made with French and Dutch inspired alcohol. Served with a very traditional South African snack, droëwors (cured dried sausage).