Gimlet (cocktail)

WPMIXInfobox
iba =
name = Gimlet


caption =
type = cocktail
flaming =
gin = yes
served = straight or on the rocks
garnish = Lime
drinkware = old
ingredients = * Four parts gin or vodka.
* One part sweetened lime juice
prep = Mix and serve. Garnish with a slice of lime
notes =
footnotes = The gimlet is a cocktail typically made of gin or vodka and lime juice.A 1928 description of the drink was: "gin, a spot of lime, and soda" (D. B. Wesson, "I'll never be Cured III"). A 1953 description was: "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's Lime Juice and nothing else" (Terry Lennox in Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye").

The Savoy Cocktail Book (1999 edition, first published in 1930) contains the following recipe:
* 1/2 Burrough's Plymouth Gin
* 1/2 Rose's Lime Juice Cordial
* Stir, and serve in the same glass. Can be iced if desired.

The Savoy Cocktail Book also has a recipe for the "Gimblet Cocktail":
* 1/4 Lime Juice
* 3/4 Dry Gin
* Shake well and strain into medium size glass; fill up with soda water

According to the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition of August 4 2006, a gimlet consists of the following:
* 2 oz. gin or Vodka
* 1/4 to 1/2 oz. simple syrup
* 1/2 oz. lime juice
* Garnish with a lime

The "Bartender's Bible" by Gary Regan lists the recipe as:
* 2 oz. gin
* 1/2 ounce Rose's lime juice
* Garnish with lime wedge

Regan also states, "... since the Rose's product has such a long and impressive history (which predates the gimlet), 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 instead of 4:1 as in the above recipes.

For the vodka gimlet, replace gin with vodka. As of the 1990s, maybe earlier, bartenders often answer requests for the gimlet with a vodka gimlet. Vodka gimlets were popularized by renowned proposition gambler and raconteur "Hong Kong" Freddie Wong, whose spirit of choice is quadruple-distilled Belvedere. As the gimlet was director Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s favorite cocktail, he often used the pseudonyms "Telmig Akdov" or "Akdov Telmig" (Vodka Gimlet spelled backwards) for his adult novels. [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000248/ Edward D. Wood Jr ] ]

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 (available from nearly any grocery), 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."

Origin

Sources on the internet credit the creation of the gimlet to one Sir Thomas O. Gimlette, KCB, a British naval surgeon who is said to have joined the Royal Navy in 1879. In 1890, Dr. Gimlette observed that limes, containing vitamin C, offered significant protection against scurvy, a then common ailment amongst sailors. In combining lime juice with gin, he sought an attractive way to encourage sailors to imbibe lime juice as an anti-scorbutic. Sir Thomas retired in June, 1913, as a Surgeon General. The term 'limey" designating British sailors derives from this history.

ee also

* List of cocktails

References

External links

*Drinkboy recipe|link=Gimlet|name=Gimlet