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Summary Information - A short introduction into this article

You make a Gimlet by adding Ice, Gin and Lime Cordial to a Cocktail Glass.

Click here to jump to the recipe.

Wanna know how to make a Gimlet? We’ve got you covered!

You make a Gimlet by by combining Gin and Sweetened Lime Juice in a Cocktail Glass.

…But there’s a little more to it than that (we’ll get to that later).

In this Gimlet cocktail recipe you’re going to learn:

PLUS, a free How to Make a Gimlet Infographic that you can download and take with you. Pretty cool, right?

Let’s dive right into the cocktail recipe.

How to make a Gimlet - a quick and easy cocktail recipe

How to Make a Gimlet

Gimlet Cocktail Recipe

Gimlet Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

  • Gin 50ml / 1.7oz.
  • Lime Cordial 50ml / 1.7oz.
  • a slice of lime

Recipe

  • Add Ice, Gin, and Lime Cordial to a Cocktail Glass.
  • Garnish with a slice of lime.

What you Need to Make a Gimlet

As you can tell from the recipe above, you don’t need a whole lot stuff make a Gimlet…not even a cocktail shaker.

Gin

For Gin, we recommend Hendricks:

Lime Cordial

For Lime Cordial, we recommend Britvic Lime Cordial:

Britvic Lime Cordial
Britvic Lime Cordial
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Cocktail Glasses

For Cocktail Glasses, we recommend:

Cocktail Glasses
Cocktail Glasses
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How Many Calories Are in a Gimlet?

So how does a Gimlet affect our waistlines?

Calories
Gin
108
Lime Cordial
11
Total Calories
119

The History of the Gimlet

The Gimlet was born and popularised at some point in the 19th Century.

Citrus fruit and juice was a commonplace with sailors during this time, as it was used to fight of scurvy.

Add some sort of booze to it was always going to happen. Especially with sailors.

Perhaps you would picture sailors mixing Rum with some sort of citrus juice as Rum is the stereotypical sailors tipple, but no. In this case, it was Gin.

It’s thought that it was Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette who introduced Gin to the citrus juice. Gimlette was a naval medical officer who prescribed Gin with the lime juice to “help the medicine go down.”

A helluva doctor.

It’s also alleged that the Gimlet cocktail was named after Gimlette because of this.

Other stories suggest that the Gimlet is named after the tool used to tap the barrels of spirits carried on British Naval Ships.

Perhaps it was a combination of both?

Gimlet Variations Through Time

Interestingly, there are a number of variations of the Gimlet that are also quite delicious.

In The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks David A. Embury gives a recipe called a Gin Sour that consists of Gin, Lime Juice and Simple Syrup.

The Simple Syrup is a welcome addition to mixture, sweetening up the concoction for those with more of a sweet tooth.

Here’s the recipe:

Gin Sour Cocktail Recipe

Gin Sour Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

  • Gin 60ml / 2oz.
  • Lime Juice 15ml / 0.5oz.
  • Simple Syrup 15ml / 0.5oz.
  • a slice of lime

Recipe

  • Add Ice, Gin, Lime Juice, and Simple Syrup to a Cocktail Glass.
  • Garnish with a slice of lime.

Also there’s a Vodka Gimlet offshoot of the original which, as you might guess, replaces Gin for Vodka.

Vodka Gimlet Cocktail Recipe

Vodka Gimlet Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

  • Vodka 50ml / 1.7oz.
  • Lime Cordial 50ml / 1.7oz.
  • a slice of lime

Recipe

  • Add Ice, Vodka, and Lime Cordial to a Cocktail Glass.
  • Garnish with a slice of lime.

For Vodka, we recommend Vodka. Why? Because we analysed 12 different brands of Vodka and determined that Smirnoff Red Label was the best of the bunch. You can read all about our Vodka Comparison here.

How to Make a Gimlet Infographic

To save the below How to Make a Gimlet infographic to your computer:

Or a tablet or mobile:

How to Make a Gimlet Infographic

Summary

So, in this article we’ve learnt:

Further Reading

  1. The Best Vodka for Cocktails
  2. Gimlet Wikipedia
  3. Difford’s Guide to the Gimlet
  4. Gin Foundry’s Guide to the Gimlet
Kris Barton Author
Cocktail connoisseur and season mixologist, Kris Barton has been making (and more importantly drinking) cocktails for most of his adult life. He's the author of all of these quick & easy cocktail recipes you'll want to drink over and over again.

Kris' Bio