Gimlet

Taste

On the nose it's lime and juniper and not a great deal else, which is exactly right. On tasting it's sharp, cold and clean, the syrup only there to stop the lime being unpleasant rather than to make the drink sweet. The gin's botanicals come through far more clearly than they do in a G&T, because there's no tonic sitting on top of them, so this is a good drink for finding out what your gin actually tastes like. Serve it properly cold. A lukewarm Gimlet is a sad thing.

Origin

The Gimlet exists because of a law. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 required British ships to carry lime or lemon juice for the crew, and in the same year Lauchlan Rose patented a way of preserving lime juice without alcohol. Rose's Lime Cordial went to sea, and gin was already there. The name usually gets pinned on Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette, a naval surgeon said to have added gin to the lime ration to help it go down. It's a lovely story and it doesn't survive a look at the dates: Gimlette was born in 1857, ten years before any of the above, and the claim appears nowhere in his obituaries. The other explanation is duller and more likely, a gimlet being the small tool you bore into a barrel with, and the drink having roughly that effect on you. The original is gin and Rose's, half and half. What's here is the fresh lime version, which is a different drink and a better one.