Gimlet with a dried lime wheel.
The gimlet is gin's most honest drink. Two ingredients, no soda to hide behind, just spirit and lime pulled tight together until it's sharp, clean, and a little austere. It was a sailor's drink before it was a bar one, and it still tastes like it means business.
A fresh lime wedge dropped in goes soggy and sinks within a minute. A dried lime wheel does the opposite: it floats, holds its colour, and gives you the rind aroma without the pith bitterness that creeps in as the ice melts.
What you'll need
- 60ml London dry gin
- 15ml fresh lime juice
- 15ml lime cordial
- 1 dried lime wheel
- Ice, to shake
How to make it
- In a shaker, combine the gin, fresh lime juice, and lime cordial. Fill with ice.
- Shake hard for 10 seconds. You want it ice-cold and just slightly diluted.
- Strain into a chilled coupe. No ice in the glass; the gimlet is short and sharp.
- Float a dried lime wheel on the surface to finish. It'll perch there for the whole drink.
Why dried beats fresh here
A fresh wheel of lime is mostly water and pith, and in a drink this stripped-back it muddies things fast. A dried lime wheel keeps its oil locked in the rind, sits proud on the surface, and looks sharp at the last sip instead of waterlogged at the first.
If you like your gimlet bone dry, drop the cordial to 10ml and lean on the wheel for aroma. The rind carries more lime character than most people expect once it has nothing to compete with.
Use the Lime jar, about 25 wheels, enough for a long run of gimlets.