The Historic Gimlet Cocktail

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This week we’ll be returning to discussion of a historical mix. As is often the case with the historical record of cocktails, this is a drink shrouded in some degree of mystery and misconception. Its name is widely known, and it’s often vaguely associated with sailors and preserved lime juice, but the Gimlet deserves some investigation to fully grasp how this drink came to be and evolved over the years.

The Gimlet has come to be understood as a lime sour that can feature either gin or vodka. However disputed its original creation may be, it’s understood that it began as a gin drink. Its connection to the Royal Navy is born of two events in the year 1867. It was that year that Parliament passed the Merchant Shipping Act, which required British ships to carry lime juice aboard to aid in the prevention of scurvy. Many enthusiasts of spirits and cocktail history will recognize this trend in the history of rum and lime blends such as grog. 1867 also marked the patent of an alcohol-free method of preserving lime juice by Lauchlan Rose, and thus the birth of Rose’s Lime Cordial. This simultaneity is often pointed to as the instigation of the Gimlet, with the idea of British Navy officers mixing their victualed gin with their ships’ stocks of Rose’s Lime Cordial. The only trouble with this narrative is that the lime juice required by the Merchant Shipping Act was also required by law to be fortified with 15% proof brandy or rum. Therefore, the idea of late 19th century sailors mixing up Gimlets aboard ship is shown to be apocryphal.

Although it might not have been mixed by the men of the Royal Navy in the late 1800s, there is still evidence that the Gimlet came to be prior to Prohibition. Famed pre-Prohibition bartender Tom Bullock recorded a recipe for a “Gillette Cocktail, Chicago Style” in 1917. Five years later, Harry McElhone recorded in his Harry’s ABC of Cocktails a Plymouth gin and Rose’s lime juice combination entitled Gimlet and noted as being popular in the Navy. This note of popularity is not corroborated, however, and likely stands a source of much of the later legend. McElhone’s 1920s work may have enshrined the use of Rose’s Lime Cordial in the Gimlet, but the rest of the 20th century saw increased use of vodka and often a turn towards fresh lime juice rather than Rose’s. The cocktail renaissance underway at the turn of the millennium furthered this with its emphasis on the importance of fresh squeezed citrus.

The gin and lime cordial combination is far from obsolete, however. Though the cocktail renaissance may emphasize fresh citrus juice, it also brought about both much historical research and experimentation in molecular mixology/culinary science. With such, several notable bartenders have created recipes for homemade lime cordial of high quality and intense flavor - namely Toby Cecchini, Todd Appel, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler. What’s more, a number of craft producers have made their own take on the concentrated lime cordial concept. Thanks to its uncompromising quality and potency of taste, we opted for the Sour Lime Cordial produced by Leopold Brothers. It felt fitting to pair this with Hayman’s Royal Dock, a classic London Dry English gin bottled at 57% ABV by a company that actually provided gin to the Royal Navy victualers of the past. Given that the Leopold Bro’s Lime Cordial is distilled from limes and comes in at 40% ABV, we tweaked the ratios to accomodate for the relatively higher proof of the only two ingredients.

Although it might not truly be the drink of Royal Navy sailors of old, the Gimlet is still irrefutably a delicious drink, ideal for those who like their cocktails stiff, bracing, and refreshing. Even as recipes have evolved through the 20th century and beyond, that gin and lime combination has never lost its relevance and stimulation. Pick up a bottle of Hayman’s and some of the Leopold Bro’s to mix up our take on it and see for yourself!

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