/ Nooooo artificial flavours – /
I’ve always had a pretty serious dilemma with the Gimlet. On one hand, I’ve never really been in love with fresh lime juice Gimlets. There, I’ve said it. But for me, they’ve always lacked this bracing, bitter, tart edge that a Gimlet made with Lime cordial. Those qualities have always stuck in my head as a sort of yardstick for what a Gimlet should taste and feel like, and fresh lime juice and sugar just don’t quite get the drink all the way there.
On the other hand, ordinary Lime cordial (what you buy in supermarkets) is not a great product really. There’s absolutely nothing natural about it, it’s full of high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavours, and artificial colours!!! HOWEVER… there are some “weird” qualities that make it very unique. Again, it gives a Gimlet a bracing, bitter, tart edge. It’s just the flavour that isn’t any good.
So, me being me, I had to try to find a way around this and come up with a lime cordial that captured those positive qualities of “Supermarket lime cordial”, but used fresh, natural ingredients. And believe me, I made about dozen batches of pretty bad cordial before I settled on something I could post here.
A lot of bartenders out there adopt the fresh-lime-juice-and-sugar method of making lime cordial. While it’s a really nice idea, fresh lime juice and sugar in no way captures the tartness and bitterness of a proper lime cordial. I still found something missing from those recipes.
I didn’t want this to take a lot of time steeping, or require a bunch of special Cocktail equipment or any of that nonsense: you shouldn’t need to have some sort of chemistry lab to make a freaking syrup. This should feel like you’re baking in your own kitchen, not working as scientist for Oxford University☺.
So in short, here’s what we want to accomplish with our lime cordial:
1. It should have all of the good qualities of Rose’s Lime: sweet, bracingly tart, and slightly bitter.
2. It needs to be made with fresh ingredients, and taste like fresh ingredients.
3. It needs to be easy to make, and quick to whip up. Letting something sit in a Mason jar for six weeks won’t work for us. This recipe takes about five minutes to make.
4. It has to be absolutely delicious.
Recipe:
- 2 limes
- 250 gram of ordinary white sugar
- 50 ml of water
To do this, put the grated zest into a saucepan. Squeeze the juice into a measuring jug – stop when you get to about 75 ml then top it up with water so you have 125ml of liquid in total.
Pour this into your pan with the sugar. Heat very gently, stirring occasionally just until the sugar has dissolved but don’t let it boil. Strain the mixture into a heatproof jug and leave to cool.
Let it rest for couple of days in the fridge, kept in a Tupperware.
Last step very simple: double strain it into a small bottle or jar. (remove the grated lime zest )
Absolutely delicious!!!!
The Barguys Gimlet Cocktail Recipe
To make the gimlet, put a martini or coupe glass in the fridge to chill. Pour 50ml of your Barguys homemade lime cordial, 50 ml of your favourite gin you have at home (open your cupboard….) into a jug or tall glass and add half dozen of ice cubes. Stir, until the outside of the container feels very cold.
Strain the mixture into your chilled glass and garnish with a lime twist or edible flower.
ENJOY ☺
The Barguys xx