Gimlet (cocktail)


The gimlet is a cocktail made of gin and lime juice. A 1928 description of the drink was: gin, and a spot of lime. The description in the 1953 Raymond Chandler novel The Long Goodbye stated that "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else." This is in line with the proportions suggested by The Savoy Cocktail Book, which specifies one half Plymouth Gin and one half Rose's Lime Juice Cordial. However, modern tastes are less sweet, and generally provide for at least two parts gin to one part of the lime and other non-alcoholic elements.
The derivation of the name of the cocktail is contested. It may be named after the tool for drilling small holes or after Surgeon Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette KCB, who is said to have first added lime cordial to the daily gin tot of the men of the Royal Navy to help combat the ravages of scurvy on long voyages.

Variations

A variant of the cocktail, the vodka gimlet, replaces gin with vodka. A similar lime juice cocktail using rum instead of vodka or gin is the daiquiri.

Preparation

David A. Embury gave a gimlet recipe in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, calling for an 8:2:1 gin/lime juice/simple syrup ratio plus garnish. Eric Felten essentially repeated this in his "How's Your Drink" column in The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition of August 4, 2006:
William L. Hamilton gave this recipe in his "Shaken and Stirred" column in The New York Times on September 15, 2002: A gimlet served at the Fifty Seven Fifty Seven Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel consists of the following, shaken with ice:
The Bartender's Bible by Gary Regan lists the recipe as:
Regan also states "since the Rose's product has such a long and impressive history, I am inclined to think that Rose's was the ingredient that invented the drink."
The New New York Bartender's Guide by Sally Ann Berk lists the ratio of gin to Rose's lime juice as 3:1.
The recipe on Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice label:
Charles H. Baker quoted a recipe in The Gentleman's Companion - an Exotic Drinking Book of:
Take a big saucer champagne glass, put in 45 mL either of dry or old Tom gin, 5 mL gomme syrup or sugar, 2.5 mL – to taste – of lime syrup or lime cordial.
Fill up with chilled plain water, add 1 ice cube and thin slice of big green lime. Don't use soda water, please.
He is also quoted from the book as saying:
The following vodka gimlet recipe is from the novels of Stuart Woods:
Pour six ounces of vodka from a 750 mL bottle; replace with six ounces Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice, add a small amount of water for ice crystals, shake twice and store in the freezer overnight. Pour into a martini glass and serve straight up. The glass will immediately frost over. With this recipe, no cocktail shaker is required and the cocktail is not watered down by melting ice. You may use even the cheapest vodka, and no one will ever know.

A variation that adds mint is commonly known as a South Side.
The Carnaby Gimlet, a variation with natural spring water, was created at the Carnaby Club, Rimini, Italy. The recipe is:
The word "gimlet" used in this sense is first attested in 1928. The most obvious derivation is from the tool for drilling small holes, a word also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing. Thus, the cocktail may have been named for its "penetrating" effects on the drinker.
Another theory is that the drink was named after British Royal Navy Surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette KCB, who allegedly introduced this drink as a means of inducing his messmates to take lime juice as an anti-scurvy medication. However, neither his obituary notice in the BMJ, The Times nor his entry in Who Was Who 1941–1950 mention this association.