The perfect vesper has been found - and it can be stored in your freezer

The hush-hush speakeasy-inspired bar The Doctor's Office on Capitol Hill has the perfect prescription after a sweaty, sticky day: a crisp, citrusy vesper that's served so bone chillingly cold that the glass flask it was poured from was frosty.

Upon taking a few sips of one when the bar debuted in February 2020, I turned to then-bar manager Keith Waldbauer to say, "This is so good."

"It better be," he quipped.

The Doctor's Office bar team tested 300 different versions of the vesper to get the right gin-vodka combo and the ideal water dilution level, he said.

I must have ordered this classic a zillion times over the past six years because after I bellied up to the bar one evening, the barman asked, "The usual?"

My "usual" should be your go-to cocktail for your next house party.

You don't even need any bar equipment since the most crucial tool for making this great vesper is … your freezer. You might even have two crucial ingredients already at home: vodka and gin.

Martinis are trendy now in restaurants. And this stiff cousin of the martini will be familiar to any fan of James Bond.

Writer Ian Fleming came up with the recipe and immortalized the drink in his 1953 novel, "Casino Royale." In the 2006 Bond flick of the same name, Daniel Craig blurts out the recipe at the poker table: "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shake it over ice and then add a thin slice of lemon peel."

When The Doctor's Office debuted in February 2020 on East Olive Way, the bar team, including owner Matthew Powell (he's a real medical doctor), declared that the vesper would be one of the spot's signature classics.

For two months, they geeked out over this recipe, using spreadsheets and graduated cylinders to pour different combinations of 13 different brands of vodka and 23 different gins to come up with the perfect Bond drink. Each gin-and-vodka sample included a third ingredient, too - a half ounce of Cocchi Americano or Lillet Blanc, two types of fortified wine.

The verdict: The Cocchi Americano gave this classic more bite and complexity, and its slightly bittersweet note resembles Kina Lillet, the fortified wine used in the original James Bond recipe. Kina Lillet is no longer available; as a substitute, Lillet Blanc gives the vesper a fruitier profile.

In a blind taste test of 300 vespers, Waldbauer says the "juniper forward, grapefruit-y" note of the London-style gin Beefeater showcases this classic cocktail best.

"And Reyka is a nice, clean vodka that softens some of the juniper," he says.

But in a pinch, I think any London-style gin and vodka in your home bar would make a decent vesper. What makes this drink really sing for me is that it's served at a temperature bordering on brain freeze. To get it that cold, you gotta store it in your freezer.

During the cocktail renaissance in the last decade, a mixologist in his ironic mustache told me that if the martini is served too icy cold, your palate would be too numb to enjoy the gin.

But over dinner one night, former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni persuaded me that a gin martini topped with shards of ice makes for a damn fine cocktail.

The late bartending legend Murray Stenson once made his version by stirring the martini and pouring it in a bell-shaped Nick and Nora glass just below the rim. He then added ice to the shaker and gave it "a hard shake" to create ice crystals to float on the surface of the drink. Man, that was the perfect antidote to the heat wave Seattle faced that summer.

Waldbauer and the team at the Doctor's Office did one better by pre-batching the drink and storing it in the freezer to create a more harmonious cocktail. The vesper doesn't turn slushy in there because it's so high-proof. Instead, you get "some viscosity, a nice, silky texture," Waldbauer says.

Once the drink sits in your glass, it "eventually mellows and thins out to a more recognizable texture," he continues.

Which is what you don't want. At the Doctor's Office, the bar team solves this dilemma by pouring two-thirds of a vesper drink into your glass before storing the flask back in the freezer. When you've sipped most of that cocktail, the bartender retrieves that frosty flask to pour the remainder for you.

I suggest you do the same at your next house party. What's great about a pre-batched vesper in a bottle is that it's like a punch bowl.

"You don't have to stir drinks all night," says Waldbauer, who now runs a home bar consulting business, BarKeith. Making every drink to order "may seem fun at first, but that gets old. You want to spend time with friends, which is the reason you threw the party in the first place."

The Vesper at the Doctor's Office

1.5 oz. Beefeater gin

1 oz. Reyka vodka

.5 oz. Cocchi Americano

1 oz. of water

Garnish with a lemon twist

Stir all the ingredients in a Mason jar and store overnight in the freezer.

To make a large batch for a party, change "ounces to "bottle" for this recipe.

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