Cocktail Hacker

This week’s cocktail was an interesting departure from the norm here at Cocktail Hacker. The Pimm’s Cup is very low in alcohol and really quite refreshing. I can certainly see why this is a summer favorite in the UK. As I mentioned in my intro post I started the week with the recipe from The Joy of Mixology and I didn’t stray far from that base. There was one key aspect though that seemed quite tweakable, the mixer.

The mixer listed in the recipe is fairly vague. Once you’ve added your 2 oz of Pimm’s No. 1 it indicates that you should add 5-7 oz of lemon/lime soda, ginger ale or club soda. Other recipes I found on the web said that lemonade should be used. Seemed like a perfectly hackable recipe, so I picked up Sprite, lemonade, San Pelegrino Limonata, and Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew. With these and my homemade fizz water I was ready to rock. The reviews listed below are in my order of preference (most to least preferred).

Ginger Ale: The ginger ale seemed to be the only one of the mixers that actually allowed the aroma of the Pimm’s to remain. The earthy flavor of the ginger ale combined very well with the similar flavor of the Pimm’s. My only complaint about the ginger ale was the lack of a sour component. Adding about 1/4 oz of lemon juice corrected that problem perfectly.

Limonata: The limonata is a sparkling lemonade with a nice level of sour. I found that it worked very well with the flavor of the Pimm’s. The only reason this isn’t my favorite is the sourness was a little too much in this one.

Sprite: I wouldn’t suggest going with Sprite, or 7-up for that matter, in this cocktail. Both of them simply don’t have enough flavor going for them to make a good pair with the Pimm’s. If you’re going to go the lemon/lime soda route I’d look for something with a stronger flavor.

Lemonade: The lemonade I used was very good, but its flavor was so strong that it covered the Pimm’s almost completely. Also, I really missed the carbonation. If you’re wanting to go with a lemonade I’d suggest looking for the limonata, or perhaps cutting lemonade with soda water.

Soda Water: I really didn’t like combo at all. The resulting cocktail was only exceedinly mildly sweet and the sharpness of the straight soda water (which I normally enjoy on its own) masked the flavor of the Pimm’s almost entirely. I wouldn’t recommend this option at all.

The end result of this tasting? Go with ginger ale, add a squeeze of lemon for some sourness and you’ll be a happy camper. I now present to you the Cocktail Hacker preferred recipe for the Pimm’s Cup.

Pimm's Cup (Cocktail Hacker Recipe)

[Ingredients]

2 oz Pimm's No. 1 Cup

6 oz Ginger Ale

1/4 - 1/2 Lemon Juice

Lemon, Orange, Cucumber for Garnish

[Directions]

1) Add ice to a pint glass with the garnishes.

2) Add the Pimm's and lemon juice.

3) Top with ginger ale.

I took some other cool pictures of the Pimm’s Cup, you can check them out in the Cocktail Hacker group on Flickr.

Pimm’s is certainly a unique liquor and I can imagine a lot of you are not interested in rushing out to buy a bottle simply to make this cocktail. Well fear not, there is a simple, and cheap solution; make up a batch of Faux Pimm’s. I found this recipe while researching Pimm’s and decided to give it a go. In the pictures below the real Pimm’s No. 1 is on the left.

Faux Pimm's

2 oz Gin (Juniper Green)

2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Noilly Prat)

1 oz Triple Sec (Cointreau)

On first taste the Faux Pimm’s is good, but it’s not Pimm’s. The faux is sweeter and has a more winey flavor from the vermouth. The real stuff has a more earthy quality and the flavors are better blended. I will say that this recipe is a reasonable approximation of Pimm’s No. 1 and will certainly give you an idea of what the real stuff is like.

Next I added some Reed’s Premium Ginger Beer and sampled again. Neither of them were able to shine through against this ginger ale. Simply too much going on there, more on that later. Since that experiment didn’t go well I tried another mixer I’ve been playing with this week, San Pelegrino Limonata. This was a better choice to show off the Pimm’s. The faux Pimm’s still came through a bit on the sweet side for me. Both were good in the this mixture. If you decide to go with faux Pimm’s the best explanation I can give is that you’ll be losing the characteristic funkiness of this spirit.

In or around 1823 James Pimm, then owner of an oyster bar in London, created what would later become Pimm’s No. 1 Cup. Pimm’s No. 1 is a blend of gin, fruit nectars, quinine and a secret blend of herbs. The aroma of Pimm’s No. 1 is fruity and aromatic but the gin base comes through. The flavor is also fruity, somewhat earthy and very warming. Some time following the creation of Pimm’s No. 1 Pimm created what would become the spirit’s signature drink, the Pimm’s Cup.

The Pimm’s Cup is a classic cocktail in the UK. Difford’s sums it up nicely, “You’ve not properly experienced an English summer until you’ve drunk one of these whilst sheltering from the rain.” Seeing as it’s the middle of winter here in Colorado it seems like a good analog for the British summer and, as such, a perfect time to give this cocktail a go. The recipe is fairly simple, but there are a lot of variations. I’ll be starting here, with Regan’s recipe.

Pimm's Cup

[Ingredients]

2 oz Pimm's No. 1 Cup

5-7 oz Ginger Ale, Lemon/Lime Soda, or Club Soda

1 Sliver of Cucumber Rind for Garnish

[Directions]

1) Build in a 16 oz mixing glass.

2) Add the garnish.

As I sit here sipping what will likely be my last Corpse Reviver #2 for the week I’m still in shock about how great this cocktail truly is. I had heard a great deal of praise while researching on the web, but didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have. I didn’t even stray from the recipe I listed at the beginning of the week much. It really wasn’t necessary this time. The results of these two weeks of cocktail enjoyment are nearly a full page of notes and I write damn tiny, so let me distill them down for you.

To start let’s talk absinthe or a substitute if need be. Gary’s recipe says to go easy and although I agree I think you can be pretty liberal in your application of a dash in this case. I tried everything from a very small dash (6 drops or so) all the way up to a full 1/4 oz. Although I did find the absinthe started to overpower the other flavors when you got up to 1/4 oz I still didn’t find it unpleasant. Now in the spirit of full disclosure I will say that I am a black licorice fanatic and as such don’t find the anise flavor at all off putting. After the numerous experiments I’ve landed on an amount that I prefer, 1 tsp. This gives the drink a nice absinthe note without making it the star of the show. If you’re not a huge fan of the anise flavor try dropping the dose down to 1/2 tsp, but certainly don’t get rid of it all together.

I found this drink, at least using Gary’s recipe, to be nicely balanced and really quite incredible. In fact, my first tasting note when drinking the first CR #2 of the week was “Very fantastic cocktail!” The fruitiness of the Lillet (primarily citrus) plays exceedingly well with the Cointreau and lemon juice. I can certainly see this cocktail being a good morning bolster or hair of the dog, but I’ll keep it in the evenings. I think my employer will prefer that as well.

There is, however, still the slight issue of bitterness that I touched on earlier this week. I solved this problem with orange bitters. I tried Regan’s to start and found they worked well, adding a bitter note and some depth of flavor. However, the real winner in the bitters category for this cocktail are Angostura Orange Bitters which are absolutely fantastic in the CR #2. These added the amount of bitterness I was looking for and the orange flavor blends with the other ingredients really well. If you’re interested in stocking up on orange bitters Kegworks.com offers a three pack that includes Angostura Orange, Regan’s Orange and Fee Brothers’ Orange bitters in one pack. I’ve found that all three are quite good but different enough that they have specific applications.

Last, but certainly not least, at least not in my house, is the choice of gin. As with most gin cocktails I spent most of my time mixing with Plymouth. This is certainly not a bad choice, never is in my opinion, but I think you can do better. The other flavors in this cocktail are strong and as such need a strong gin to compliment them. I’d go for something with a strong juniper character such as Juniper Green or even Gordon’s. My favorite was a locally produced micro distilled gin that just recently came on the market, Roundhouse. This gin, which I’ll be reviewing soon, is really strongly herbal in a fantastically good way. It has enough flavor of its own that it doesn’t get lost in the CR #2 and adds a huge depth of flavor that I found really pleasing. If you can find a bottle, which is not likely outside of Boulder/Longmont right now, definitely give it a go.

My recipe for the CR #2 is almost identical to the one listed in The Joy of Mixology with the one twist that I call for the addition of bitters. There are however a ton of other recipes out there. Rick over at Kaiser Penguin mixed up some of the others and has his comments here.

Corpse Reviver #2 (CH Recipe)

[Ingredients]

3/4 oz Gin

3/4 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz Lillet Blanc

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 tsp Absinthe

3 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters

[Directions]

1) Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice.

2) Shake until thoroughly chilled.

3) Strain into a cocktail glass.

I’ll leave you with the words of Harry Cradock himself, “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again”. Well said Harry, well said.

This week I’ve been focusing most of my efforts on the Corpse Reviver #2. In the intro post I mentioned that there was also a Corpse Reviver #1 in the Savoy Cocktail Book. Feeling a need to do my due diligence I mixed up the CR #1 to get an idea what it was like. The first thing I have down in my notes is that it’s a “Big glass o’ brown spirits” and that it truly is.

This cocktail makes the applejack the true star of the show. It is only very lightly adulterated by the addition of sweet vermouth and brandy. I found this drink to be very dry and overall only okay. It wasn’t particularly balanced and tasted like a less well thought out Manhattan. I noted that the addition of bitters might help to add some additional dimension to the flavor profile. But, if you’re going to start adding ingredients like bitters and changing the ratios then I think you’d be better off just making a Manhattan with applejack. We already know that mixture is a winner. I’ll leave you with a comment from Diffords Guide #7. This drink is “Dry and potent.” Well said indeed.