With no botanicals to hide behind, a vodka gimlet lives on temperature and fresh lime. Shaken until the tin frosts, it is bracing, bright and very clean, with just enough sugar to round off the tartness.
2 oz
vodkae.g. Absolut · Smirnoff · Grey Goose · Ketel One · Belvedere
¾ oz
lime juice
½ oz
simple syrup
Garnish: Lime wheel · Ice: Served up, no ice
Vodka Gimlet
Crisp and tart with fresh lime and a clean, neutral backbone. Very cold, lightly sweet and quite strong for its simple profile.
The gimlet began as a gin drink. It is usually linked to the British navy in the 19th century, when sailors were issued lime juice against scurvy and officers mixed it with gin, though the details of that story, including the naming, are not documented well. For decades a gimlet meant gin and sweetened lime cordial, and in Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel The Long Goodbye a character declares that a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice.
As vodka became fashionable in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the vodka gimlet grew into a bar staple in its own right. Today most bartenders make it with fresh lime and simple syrup rather than cordial, which gives a brighter, more natural flavor.
The build is the same: spirit, lime and sugar. A gimlet uses gin or vodka, a daiquiri uses white rum.
Yes, that is the traditional cordial style. Use about 20 to 25 ml and no extra syrup; it is sweeter and less fresh.
Shaken, because it contains citrus juice. Shaking chills, dilutes and aerates the drink properly.
The perfect sound
Sharp, cool and effortlessly stylish.
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