Serious Eats: Recipes
Time for a Drink: The Gin Rickey
As promised on Wednesday, Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles returns here with a recipe to do you up right for the weekend. Drink up! —The Serious Eats Team
If you look at the gin rickey and think it’s nothing but a gin and tonic without tonic’s bittersweet bite, you’d be mostly correct. Dismiss it as a G&T wannabe, however, and you’re missing out on one of the great joys of summer. Created in a Washington, D.C., bar called Shoemaker’s during an especially brutal heat wave in the 1890s—before the advent of air conditioning, you’ll note—the gin rickey is like an effervescent Frigidaire. Refreshingly bubbly and pleasantly bitter, this Gilded Age cooler demonstrates how your great-grandparents made it through the summer alive.
Gin Rickey
Squeeze the juice from 1/2 of a well-washed lime into an ice-filled 10-ounce Collins glass. Add 2 ounces London dry gin, toss in the lime shell for color, and fill the glass with chilled club soda. Some prefer to add a touch of sugar or simple syrup; the rickey really doesn’t need it, but if you’d like a sweeter drink, go for it.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.