Welcome back. After last week’s Frankenstein cocktail, I decided to go back to normal, and mix a classic. Still staying with gin, I’m making Gimlets. It’s about as easy as a drink can be, or at least I assumed as much. Three simple ingredients right? How much deviation can there be? Well, a lot actually.

In doing research (aka flipping through my many cocktail books), I discovered there are a few different ways you can make a gimlet, depending on how involved you want to get, and what kind of flavor profile you are looking for. I consulted my three most used sources this week: The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, The PDT Cocktail Book, and The Gentleman’s Companion.

In The Gentleman’s Companion, Charles Baker laments the fact that this drink is not as well known in the West as it is in the Orient and the Indian Sub Continent. “Why on earth this stroke of genius stands unheralded and unsung  in this fair and allegedly free land of ours…” he asks, and I very much agree with his assessment. The gimlet can be found on some cocktail menus, however it seems to still remain a mystery in today’s cocktail scene. The gimlet he describes is as follows:

Take a big saucer champagne glass and put in:

1 jigger (1.5 oz.) Old Tom or dry gin

1 tsp. Gomme syrup or sugar

.5 tsp (or to taste) Lime syrup or lime cordial

Fill up with chilled plain water. Add 1 ice cube and a thin slice of a big green lime. No soda water, please.

Now this is an interesting spin. What sticks out to me is the fact that he literally waters down the drink. I would assume that helps cut the tartness of the lime. Since I would imagine that lime cordial or syrup is rather up front and strong. How does one make lime cordial? I had no idea until I opened the Please Don’t Tell Cocktail Book. Their recipe for a gimlet is:

2 oz. Plymouth gin

.75 oz Lime cordial

.75 oz Lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with slice of lime.

Now for the lime cordial:

24 oz. Simple syrup

12 Limes

Remove zest from limes using a micro-plane. Place zest in a nonreactive container, add simple syrup and infuse at room temperature for 10 minutes. Fine strain and store in the refrigerator. Yield approx. 23 oz. 

Well. That seems easy enough to make. I’m intrigued with making the cordial at least. The recipe does not say how long it lasts after making it, but I would imagine no more than a week or so before you’d want to make a fresh batch.

Now the Waldorf has the cordial version of which is instantly recognizable, but it also introduces the Sour version. Let’s go through the cordial first:

2 oz. Greenhook Ginsmith’s American dry gin

1 oz. Rose’s lime juice cordial

Place both ingredients into a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with thinly sliced lime wheel.

That is the gimlet recipe I assume everyone sticks to nowadays. It’s 2 ingredients, and how can you go wrong.  However, (puts cocktail snob hat on) I tend to stick with fresher ingredients. So, after considering the above versions,  I decided to make the sour gimlet version:

2 oz. Greenhook Ginsmith’s American dry gin

.75 oz Simple syrup

.75 oz fresh lime juice

Place all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with thinly sliced lime wheel.

Referencing Baker once again, “unlike most cocktails, it is not ‘warming’ in hot weather, but in fact a cooler”. He’s certainly not wrong. It is cool, refreshing and has just enough of a kick to let you know there’s gin in there.  On a hot summer day, one of these will be most satisfactory. Although I would say there is a limit on how many you can have since the lime taste can start to build up after a few. I can’t remember the last time I had a gimlet, and that is a shame. I’m glad I made one this week, and will definitely make sure to keep them in the summer cocktail rotation.