Libation Laboratory: Running the Gimlet, Part I

MxMo update: It looks like all of the MxMo latecomers are in, so we went ahead and updated the post with four new entries from Southern Ash, Feu-de-Vie, Chemistry of the Cocktail, and Bartending Notes. Their drinks are awesome, so be sure to check them out. We can't wait to see you all next month.Inspired by a New York Times Magazine article describing a "raw" lime cordial, Joe and I decided to explore the spectrum of citrus cordials. We made lemon, lime, and grapefruit cordials and mixed a series of gimlets with each, using an array of base spirits selected because we thought they'd be interesting to try out. In this series, we present our tasting notes.For the first post in this series, we made lemon gimlets using Zucca, Smith & Cross, and Cognac Salignac. I've always made a gimlet using a 4:1 ratio of gin to lime cordial, so we used this as our starting point. However, as we quickly learned, this ratio was designed for gin, and, as always, you should use your taste as your guide when trying something new. Also, home-made cordials are going to taste sweeter and more intense than anything store-bought. For each of our gimlets we fixed the amount of cordial to .5 oz, then poured .5 oz of base spirit at a time, tasting and adjusting until the flavors were balanced well enough.To make a cordial, make a simple syrup, only add citrus peels and use citrus juice instead of water. Trimming the pith from the peels is a pain, but an essential step because citrus pith tastes bitter. It's OK to be a little lazy with the piths when making a lemon or grapefruit cordial, but you really do want to remove as much pith as you can when you're working with limes. Just for completeness, here's the recipe we used to make our cordials:

Citrus CordialCitrus peels (pith removed)1 cup fresh citrus juice1 cup sugarPeel your citrus fruits and remove all pith from the peels. Add all ingredients to a medium-sized pot over medium heat and stir until integrated. Strain and discard the peels.

In the image above, from left to right, we have:

Zucca Lemon Gimlet

Eye: Very dark, can't see the lemon cordial at all.Nose: Spicy, bright citrus.Sip: Bittersweet, zucca and lemon blend together well.Finish: Bittersweet, pretty much the same as it started.It's well known that rhubarb tastes great with citrus, especially oranges and lemons. Zucca, of course, is bittersweet, and its citrus notes are amplified by the lemon cordial. A great gimlet, probably my second favorite of the three.

Smith & Cross Lemon Gimlet

Eye: Dark brown/yellow, an intriguing amber color.Nose: Sweet caramel with a hint of lemon.Sip: Dark caramel and fresh, funky hogo.Finish: Exotic fruits, bright citrus.Joe and I both agree that this was the winner. Smith & Cross is one of our favorite rums, and the lemon cordial makes it sing to us. It's amazing how the fruit in the rum is amplified by the lemon cordial. It was a great match.

Cognac Salignac Lemon Gimlet

Eye: Looks yellow, almost like pineapple juice.Nose: Cognac and lemon, predictably.Sip: Sweet, caramel, bright lemons.Finish: Weak finish from the cognac, lemon overwhelms it.The first few sips of this were great, and Joe and I were considering it for second place, but the problem was that the cognac finished weakly, and is overwhelmed by the lemon cordial in the swallow.Join us again next week, when we'll explore the lime cordial.