Eastern Standard
An Eastern Standard is 50ml London Dry gin or vodka, 25ml fresh lime juice, 15ml simple syrup, three slices of cucumber and three mint leaves. The cucumber is muddled hard and the mint clapped and pressed lightly, then the drink is shaken, fine strained into a chilled coupe and finished with a cucumber slice rubbed round the rim. About 2.0 UK units. It is one of the Soho House group’s House Tonic cocktails. It is based on the Eastside, which in turn grew out of the Southside, and the recipe the group has published gives vodka or gin as equal choices. Against the Eastside it has less gin, less sugar and half the mint, so it comes out lighter and sharper, with the cucumber in front.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Cucumber slice rubbed round the rim then dropped in
Ingredients
50ml
London Dry gin at 40% ABV. The published recipe gives vodka as an equal choice: gin fills the middle of the drink with botanicals, vodka leaves plain cucumber and mint.
25ml
Fresh, from that day’s limes. At 25ml against 15ml of syrup it keeps the drink sharp while the muddled cucumber adds water.
15ml
Simple syrup, equal sugar and water by weight. The Soho House recipe muddles 10g of sugar with the cucumber; syrup dissolves at once and leaves no grit.
3 slices
Three slices, crushed hard with the syrup first, before the rest. Peeled, they give a cleaner, paler drink.
3 leaves
Three leaves, clapped once and pressed gently. Muddled hard, they turn the drink grassy and bitter.
Instructions
Chill a coupe in the freezer or with ice water.
Muddle three cucumber slices hard with the simple syrup in the base of a shaker.
Clap three mint leaves once between your palms, add them with the gin and lime juice, and press gently.
Fill the shaker with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Fine strain into the chilled coupe.
Rub a cucumber slice round the rim and drop it into the drink.
Expert Tip
Treat the two green ingredients differently. Crush the cucumber hard with the syrup first; it is mostly water and gives up its flavour reluctantly. Clap the mint once between your palms, add it with the spirit and lime, and press gently. A hard muddle tears mint and turns the drink grassy and bitter, and once it is shaken that cannot be undone. Fine strain it. Cucumber pulp and torn mint cloud the coupe and catch in the teeth.
Behind the Eastern Standard
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Eastern Standard is one of the House Tonic cocktails of the Soho House group, the members’ clubs. It is built on the Eastside, which was itself a variation on the Southside.
The recipe the group has published gives vodka or gin, three slices of cucumber, three mint leaves and a coupe, with a longer version in a tumbler topped with soda or tonic. The name appears to nod to the Eastside; how it got it is not recorded.
The Garden Sour Lineage
The Southside is the oldest of the three: gin, citrus, sugar and mint, usually linked to Prohibition-era America by stories that are hard to verify. The Eastside added cucumber. The Eastern Standard pares the Eastside back.
Southside, Eastside and Eastern Standard compared
Southside
- Spec
- 60ml gin, 30ml lemon, 15ml syrup, five or six mint leaves
- Strength
- About 2.4 UK units
Eastside
- Spec
- 60ml gin, 25ml lime, 20ml syrup, three cucumber slices, six mint leaves
- Strength
- About 2.4 UK units
Eastern Standard
- Spec
- 50ml gin or vodka, 25ml lime, 15ml syrup, three cucumber slices, three mint leaves
- Strength
- About 2.0 UK units
| Drink | Spec | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Southside | 60ml gin, 30ml lemon, 15ml syrup, five or six mint leaves | About 2.4 UK units |
| Eastside | 60ml gin, 25ml lime, 20ml syrup, three cucumber slices, six mint leaves | About 2.4 UK units |
| Eastern Standard | 50ml gin or vodka, 25ml lime, 15ml syrup, three cucumber slices, three mint leaves | About 2.0 UK units |
Line them up and the flavours barely move. What changes is the weight: the Eastern Standard carries the least spirit and the least sugar of the three, so the cucumber and lime come forward.
The Eastside is the fuller version, with more gin and twice the mint.
Gin or Vodka
The recipe offers both, and both work. Cucumber and mint are strong enough to carry the drink, so taking out the gin leaves a cleaner version rather than a gap.
Gin is the fuller drink, because juniper and cucumber sit well together and the botanicals give the middle of the glass something to do. Vodka lets the lime show more.
Batching It
The cucumber batches; the mint does not. Muddle cucumber into the syrup in quantity and strain it, and it holds overnight in the fridge. The lime is squeezed fresh on the day.
Add the mint to each shaker as you go. Muddled mint in a batch turns dull and vegetal within a few hours.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard, fine strained into a chilled coupe and served up, without ice. For a longer drink, strain it into a tumbler of ice and top it with soda or tonic.
Rub the rim with a slice of cucumber and drop it in. Most of the drink’s aroma sits in the cucumber, and the rim is what your nose passes before each mouthful.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. GB law requires juniper to lead the taste and sets a 37.5% ABV floor; the usual bottle is 40%. The law grades it by how the flavour gets in, from plain gin through distilled gin to London gin, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Eastern Standard cocktail?
Where does the Eastern Standard come from?
How is it different from an Eastside?
Should I use gin or vodka?
Why muddle the cucumber and mint separately?
How strong is an Eastern Standard?
Can it be served as a long drink?
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Eastside
An Eastside is 60ml of gin, 25ml of fresh lime juice and 20ml of simple syrup, with three slices of cucumber and six mint leaves pressed gently in the shaker first. It is shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a cucumber ribbon to finish. About 2.4 UK units. It is a Southside with two changes: lime where the Southside takes lemon, and cucumber, which adds a green, watery coolness under the mint. The drink is usually credited to George Delgado at Libation on New York’s Lower East Side in the early 2000s. The care goes into the muddling. Press the cucumber enough to release its juice and the mint only enough to bruise it. Torn mint tastes bitter and grassy, and no amount of syrup covers it.
Southside
A Southside is 60ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of fresh lemon juice, 15ml of simple syrup and five or six mint leaves, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a small mint sprig. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures; 15ml of egg white is optional. Three places claim it. New York’s 21 Club served it, Long Island’s Southside Sportsmen’s Club is said to have mixed it with garden mint, and Chicago’s South Side has a story about gangsters softening rough gin with citrus, sugar and mint. None of the three can be proved, and the drink does not depend on any of them. In the glass it is a gin sour scented with mint. Shaken and served up, with no soda or crushed ice, it is more concentrated than a Mojito, and the mint reads as aroma rather than as leaves in the drink.
Gimlet
A Gimlet is 60ml of gin and 22.5ml of lime cordial, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a lime wheel. About 2.4 UK units. Gin and cordial only, with no fresh juice: the preserved lime is what makes it a Gimlet. The usual story ties it to the Royal Navy. British ships carried lime juice against scurvy, and in 1867 Lauchlan Rose of Leith patented a way to preserve it with sugar instead of alcohol. The drink’s name is not recorded until 1928, and in 1953 Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye declared that a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s. Ours is drier, a little under three to one. Cordial tastes rounder than fresh lime, with a cooked, marmalade edge, and the stir keeps the drink clear and silky.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026