Once upon a time, this refreshingly sweet cocktail was the cure-all to scurvy. It sailed many seas and ailed many sailors on its way to becoming the popular drink it is today.

As far as medicine goes, we don’t mind it.

And it makes a pretty good cocktail, too.

The nitty gritty

Our contemporary Australian gin wasn’t around for ye sailors of old, but it is here for you! So get cracking on your gimlet with a bottle of our Death Gin – Dry.

Do you need a cocktail shaker?

Yes. Mixing it up in a cocktail shaker is what makes a gimlet a gimlet, and not just some half-assed attempt at throwing a few ingredients together.

(See: Death Gin & Tonic for ‘half-assed attempt at throwing a few ingredients together’).

(See also: for an absolutely no-effort-required drink, just take a shot).

Lucky for you, we humans are an ingenious bunch. If you don’t have a cocktail shaker on hand, search the kitchen cupboards until you find something that looks like one. It could be a large mason jar, a venti-sized reusable coffee cup, or a small plastic container with an anti-leak lid.

50 shades of gimlet

The many shades of the gimlet may shock you. They include – but are not limited to – the following:

• Classic Gimlet
• Basil Gimlet
• French Gimlet
• Cucumber Basil Gimlet
• Mint Gimlet
• Blackberry Gimlet
• Blueberry Gimlet
• Frozen Gimlet
• Pretty Much Any Type Of Fruit Or Tasteful Herb Gimlet

Then there are the gimlets that stray from the classic gin base, but we don’t talk about those. ‘Cause that’s blasphemy, that is.

Ingredients

• 60mls gin
• 20mls freshly squeezed lime juice
• 20mls simple syrup (one part warm water, one part sugar; whisk until sugar has dissolved)
• Lime wedge or wheel to garnish

Instructions

Step 1

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice

Step 2

Pour over the gin, freshly squeezed lime juice and cooled simple syrup

Step 3

Shake until the gin, juice and syrup have blended and cooled

Step 4

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Step 5

Garnish with a lime wedge or wheel