The Gimlet

The Gimlet is proof that a great cocktail need not be complicated. Gin and lime — that is the entire drink — and yet bartenders have argued about it for a century.

The argument is about the lime. The original Gimlet was built on lime cordial, a sweetened, preserved lime syrup carried aboard ships to keep scurvy at bay, and the classic recipe is unfussy: 2 oz gin, ½ oz lime cordial, stirred or shaken and served cold. The modern, brighter version swaps in fresh lime juice and a touch of simple syrup, trading the cordial’s slightly medicinal sweetness for sharp, living citrus.

Both are correct, and they are not the same drink. The cordial version is rounder, a little nostalgic, faintly old-fashioned in the best way. The fresh version is electric — tart, clean, the gin standing right out front. If you have only ever had one, the most interesting thing you can do is make the other and taste them side by side.

Whichever you build, keep it cold and keep it small. The Gimlet is not a sipper to nurse for an hour; it is a crisp, bracing drink best taken while it is still icy, in a chilled coupe, before the chill goes off it. A wheel or wedge of lime on the rim is the only garnish it wants, and arguably it wants nothing at all.

Make it when you want gin to taste like itself — when a martini feels like too much ceremony and a tonic too much soda. The Gimlet is the gin drinker’s shorthand: direct, balanced, and finished almost before you have decided how you feel about it.

A citrus juicer earns its drawer space the first time you compare a fresh Gimlet to a cordial one — a solid one is easy to find on Amazon.