The Spirits #83: The Juliet & Romeo

~ The Everything Gimlet ~ Montagues + Capulets ~ A strange stasis ~ The fever dreams of Savanah Moss ~

Oct 7, 2022

~ THE JULIET & ROMEO ~

Three slices of cucumber
Pinch salt
50ml gin
15ml lime juice
10ml sugar syrup (2:1)
Three mint leaves
Dash Angostura bitters
A single drop of rosewater

Slice off three or four coins of cucumber and muddle in the bottom of your shaker with a pinch of salt. Add the gin, lime, sugar syrup, mint, rose and Ango’, plus a decent handful of ice. Shake hard for, what? 25 seconds. Maybe more. Now fine strain (through a tea strainer) into a cocktail glass that you had the forethought to chill. Garnish with a mint leaf,

Some J+R notes:

1. This is (or was) one of the house drinks at the Violet Hour in Chicago. There. I saved you $17 and a plane fare.

2. It’s sort of an “all-the-way” Gimlet: gin, lime, sugar with just about every additional extra that could be possibly be thrown at it.

3. In the original specs, the Angostura and rosewater are used as a “garnish” (i.e. dropped on top of the drink). Personally? I’m just not sure about that. Bitters can make a fetching garnish on drinks that use egg white (like the Pisco Sour) since there is an unyielding foam to rust into. When I tried it here, it formed an unattractive slick. The rosewater, which is colourless, didn’t really show up at all. So I just bunged them in the drink. I suppose an alternative, at least as far as the rose is concerned, would be to decant into a little diffuser spray and lightly perfume the cocktail before serving.

4. I do mean a drop of rosewater. Too much quickly becomes like drinking perfume.

SOME AUTUMNAL MUSIC!

🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here.
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.

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Hellloooo: a curtailed post this week. I’ve been unwell and not in much of a drinking mood for a couple of weeks now, mostly lying on my side, reading about the Government through one eye, and perusing Dada TikTok videos with the other. Meanwhile it’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks in our household, which must be contained for the moment, though I am hoping the stasis will break any moment… now. Good things due!

Anyway, I hope this little charmer will tide you over. Really do shake this one for a good long time. And note what a difference the pinch of salt makes.

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