Gimlet Recipe
A Gimlet is gin and lime stripped to its essentials: bright, bracing, and cold enough to fog the glass. Skip the neon cordial and build it with fresh lime and real syrup for a cocktail that tastes like a proper bar pour at home.
Ingredients
- 2 ozLondon dry gin
- 0.75 ozfreshly squeezed lime juice
- 0.75 ozsimple syrup
- 1 dashoptional saline solution
Garnish
- Lime wheel or thin lime twist
Equipment: Cocktail shaker, jigger, fine-mesh strainer, citrus juicer, chilled coupe glass
Method
- Chill your coupe glass in the freezer for at least 5 minutes, or fill it with ice water while you work.
- Combine 2 oz London dry gin, 0.75 oz fresh lime juice, 0.75 oz simple syrup, and a dash of saline in a shaker.
- Fill the shaker three-quarters with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds until the tin is painfully cold.
- Double strain through a fine-mesh strainer into the chilled coupe to catch pulp and ice shards.
- Garnish with a lime wheel or express a lime twist over the surface and serve immediately.
About the Gimlet
The Gimlet began as a naval drink. British sailors mixed lime juice with gin, and later Rose’s lime cordial, to make the daily ration of gin more palatable and to ward off scurvy on long voyages. The modern bar version drops the sweet cordial in favor of fresh lime and simple syrup, which keeps the drink tart and clean instead of candy-sweet. It is essentially a gin sour served up, and it lives or dies on balance.
To nail it, use a London dry gin with a firm juniper backbone so the lime does not run the show, and squeeze your limes within the hour. Shake harder than feels necessary: dilution and aeration are what make the texture silky. If your limes are especially tart, nudge the syrup up by a quarter ounce, and if you want a richer mouthfeel, swap in a half ounce of lime cordial for part of the syrup.
- Fresh lime juice is non-negotiable; bottled juice turns the drink flat and bitter.
- Keep the coupe in the freezer so the cocktail stays cold through the last sip.
- A single dash of saline tames the lime's sharp edge without making the drink salty.
- For a Gimlet on the rocks, serve it over one large cube in a rocks glass and cut the syrup slightly.
Get the bottles delivered
Order online for same-day or next-day Long Island delivery, free curbside pickup in Commack, or wine shipping where it is legal (spirits are local delivery and in-store pickup only). You must be 21 or older.
