How to make a perfect gimlet, the citrus-and-gin summer cocktail

Cocktails offer a wide array of flavours. Everyone has their favourite, and their choices are often predicated by the season.

In cooler months, people prefer drinks crafted with spirits like bourbon or scotch, while in summer we crave bright and refreshing drinks. Citrus-based cocktails are often favourites.

Enter the gimlet, a sweet and tart mix of gin, lime juice and simple syrup that is believed by some to have started out as a medicine.

To prevent scurvy on British warships in the 1800s, sailors drank a daily ration of citrus juice. But the fruit often went bad during long voyages, so Royal Navy surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette suggested adding gin, or so the story goes.

Eventually, the drink made its way to bars, where it was embraced by the public. In 1922, the gimlet cocktail made with Rose’s lime juice turned up in Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, and the rest is cocktail history.

Whether it was named after the admiral or the drilling tool that had a similar “penetrating” effect is anyone’s guess.