008 – Gimlet

A Sydney ‘lock-down’ version of the famous Gimlet cocktail.

Sydney’s Covid Lockdown has inspired me to explore this simple cocktail and its roots. Here is the resulting ‘Gimlet’ recipe, with home-made Lime Cordial and some selected background.

Make your own ‘Locktail’ Gimlet. Here is the recipe:

METHOD — FOR THE LIME CORDIAL – Obtain the zest of three fresh limes (using a grater or microplane) infuse into 150gm of caster sugar by rubbing with the back of a spoon until a light-green fluffy grain consistency (see image below). Add the juice and pith from the limes to the sugar mix and sufficient water to equal around 200ml in total (of combined juice and water – favoring the juice as much as possible). Heat in a pan on a low heat until all sugar has dissolved (do not boil). Strain out all solids (I prefer straining twice). Refrigerate for use in the cocktail. Should make over 250ml (suitable for around 8 cocktails) and last, refrigerated, for several weeks at least. You can add some citric acid and/or tartaric acid to preserve for longer, however this is unnecessary for the taste of the cocktail.

FOR THE COCKTAIL – Shake 60ml Navy Strength Gin and 30ml Lime Cordial in a Boston Shaker over ice until very cold (10 seconds). Strain into glass (without ice) and garnish with a fresh lime wedge. You can add additional lime juice and/or sugar syrup to the shaker to taste. Also use lower-strength Gin if the high-alcohol content of Navy Strength Gin is undesirable.

HISTORICAL NOTES – Interestingly the ‘Gimlet’ does not make it into the International Bartender Association (IBA)’s official Cocktail lists. Although the ‘Southside’, ‘Aviation’, ‘Bee’s Knees’, ‘Bramble’, ‘Casino’, ‘Corpse Reviver‘, ‘Clover Club’, ‘French 75’, ‘Gin Fizz’, ‘John Collins‘, and ‘White Lady’ do, showing a preference for Gin and Lemon mixes over those with lime, where only the ‘Last Word’, ‘Ramos Fizz’, ‘Singapore Sling’, and ‘Suffering Bastard’ make it as Gin and Lime mixes. This more than 11:4 Lemon:Lime contrast in official cocktails is interested. It is almost as though ‘someone’ wants Lime reserved for Rum and Tequila Cocktails? The history of Gin and Lime mixes is richer than this, and most likely started with the humble but powerful, and timelessly popular ‘Gimlet’.

One story is that the Gimlet is an early 1900’s Cocktail, first appearing in print in 1930 in Harry Craddock’s famous cocktail bible, The Savoy Cocktail Book. It was certainly there as the Gimlet Cocktail (half Burrough’s Plymouth Gin and half Roses Lime Cordial), alongside another similar cocktail the Gimblet.

I call ‘bull3hit’ on some of the hotel and bar history of the ‘Gimlet’ here, as does Simon Difford much more eloquently and gently in his article on the ‘Gimlet Cocktail’. The Gimlet may have been a popular bar cocktail in the early 1900’s, however that was due to it’s prevalence in the English Navy for at least 25-years prior to that. The half-half – Gin and Lime Cordial – blend may have acquired its name according to either the Rear-Admiral Gimlette (1857-1943) naval doctor story, or the ‘gimlet’ hand-drill of the era (1859) somewhere along its journey, however this blend owes it’s origin to Rose’s Lime Juice and the 1867 innovation of Lauchlan Rose (1829-1885).

In 1867, Lauchlan Rose patented the process for preserving lime juice, with sugar instead of alcohol, creating the World’s first fruit concentrate. In 1868 opening his factory in Leith, adjacent to the Royal Navy’s principal harbour in Scotland. By 1875 the company had grown so much, it opened a headquarters in London, retaining the Navy as a major customer. Since 1795 it was naval practice to give sailors a daily ration of lemon or lime juice to prevent the vitamin-C deficiency-disease ‘scurvy’. Limes were preferred when available because they were easier to preserve, usually through the addition of 15-percent rum. This practice gave the British Naval Force its nickname ‘limeys’. The 1867 innovation allowed longer preservation without the use of alcohol and Rose’s Lime Cordial became a feature on long naval voyages, becoming a standard inclusion in naval rations from 1876. Gary Regan in his 1991, The Bartender’s Bible, says of the ‘Gimlet’, “I am inclined to think that Rose’s was the ingredient that invented the drink.”

During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) English sailors were given Rum rations as part of their wages, with Gin strictly reserved for the officers. Some officers were suspicious that Gin providers were watering their product down, and began testing that the spirit was of sufficient strength to burn with a clear (blue) flame (57% ABV or 114-proof), or ignite with a few grains of gunpowder and magnifying-glass concentrated sun’s rays, becoming known as ‘Navy Strength’.

From the late 1700’s every Royal Navy ship was given a ‘Plymouth Gin Commissioning Kit’ that included two bottles of Plymouth Gin. Gin was used by Ship’s Doctors to treat ailments, clean wounds and equipment, and ‘hide’ the bitter-taste of quinine (tonic) used to ward off malaria. By the late 1800s, regular sailors ‘drinking habits’ had shifted more towards Gin. When ‘Rose’s Lime Cordial’ arrived as a naval ration in 1867, the mixing of it with Gin (and Rum) was a foregone conclusion. Perhaps ‘un-named’, the ‘Gimlet’ started in the British Royal Navy at or around 1867, even sanctioned by Naval Doctors as a therapeutic mix.

The name originating from Naval Surgeon, Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette, is an unlikely urban myth, as he was only 19-years-old when Rose’s Lime Cordial was rationed to all vessels and sailors. What is true is that the Cocktail predates any of the surviving recipe books. In the Portsmouth Evening News of Friday, 13 May 1927, an arrested naval lieutenant admitted he “might have had 6 or 7 gimlets.” This stalwart of the British Navy having been around in blend if not by name since 1867 and most likely introduced to the cocktail lists of early twentieth-century hotels and bars by the visiting ‘Limeys’.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – There is no IBA ‘Gimlet’. I believe that Gary Regan’s version in The Bartender’s Bible (1991) is the closest match to the late-1800’s mix. His recipe is 60ml Plymouth Gin, 15ml Rose’s lime juice, garnished with a lime wedge.

TASTING NOTES – The ‘Gimlet’ is all about sweet-lime flavour, with the kick of Gin and the subtle botanical notes that the Gin brings to the table. In essence cold and refreshing alcoholic lime cordial. Depending where you are in the world, lime juice cordial is sweetened in different ways. The original 1800s variety used cane sugar, however many contemporary equivalents use awful methods such as high-fructose corn syrup and flavour-damaging preservatives.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – I have made this eighth Sydney Covid Lockdown Cocktail – Locktail – another homage to the cocktails of the late 1800s, and a celebration of simpler cocktails.

I am going for as close to an original 1867 seafaring Royal Navy ‘Gimlet’ as possible, with the modern indulgence of being shaken with ice and super-chilled. To make this similar to Lauchlan Rose’s – Lime Juice Cordial – innovation, I am making my own Lime Juice Cordial (no corn syrup, no preservatives, and real high-grade limes) with just lime zest, lime juice and caster sugar (recipe above).

You don’t have to use ‘Navy Strength’ Gin, that is used here to celebrate the origins of the cocktail. I have used Wolf Lane Distillery Navy Strength Gin, at 58% abv (116 proof) which was made specifically to the style of Gin drunk by “officers and sailors of the Royal Navy”. If you have Plymouth Dry Gin, that would be perfect. However any good Gin (for example The Botanist) that we have used elsewhere or Gin that you have ready to go, that will be perfectly fine to turn into a Gimlet.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

Coming up soon, more cocktails from the 1800s – the forward list is here. Or take a look at the previous ones, the Covid Reviver. the Dry Martini, the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, the Jimmy McCollins, the Americano and the Sazerac.