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. The Oxford Companion says the Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 required British merchant ships to carry lime juice against scurvy, and that Lauchlan Rose patented an alcohol-free way of preserving lime juice the same year. Harry’s ABC of Cocktails calls a Gimlet of equal parts Plymouth gin and Rose’s lime cordial “a very popular beverage in the Navy”, and Cigar Aficionado quotes Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye of 1953: a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else. 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.
Variations
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel
Ingredients
60ml
A juniper-led London Dry or Plymouth gin at our working figure of 40% ABV or a little more. It gives the soft cordial something firm to lean on; heavily floral gins pull against the lime.
22.5ml
Lime juice preserved with sugar, with no alcohol. Rose’s is the historic bottle, patented in 1867 by the Oxford Companion’s account; in our experience craft and home-made cordials taste brighter. It is the only sweetener and the only citrus in the glass.
Instructions
Chill a coupe in the freezer.
Add the gin and lime cordial to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled coupe.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
Our version
There is no single historical measure. Raymond Chandler’s 1953 Gimlet, as Cigar Aficionado quotes The Long Goodbye, is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice; ours pours 60ml of gin to 22.5ml of lime cordial, stirred, for a drier drink with the gin in front.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
The cordial decides the drink. With two ingredients, a thin or synthetic cordial makes a thin Gimlet. A cordial like Rose’s works; in our experience a home-made one of fresh lime juice, sugar and zest, heated just until the sugar melts, tastes brighter. Stir it for 20 to 30 seconds and do not shake it. There is no fresh juice to aerate, and shaking clouds the drink and fills it with air it does not need. Cordials differ in sugar from one maker to the next, so taste a new bottle on its own before you mix with it. The gin should stay in front, with the lime as the second voice.
Behind the Gimlet
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The usual account is naval. The Oxford Companion says the Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 required British merchant ships to carry lime juice against scurvy, and that in the same year Lauchlan Rose of Edinburgh patented a way of preserving lime juice without alcohol. Rose’s lime cordial is the bottle Chandler names below.
The Oxford Companion finds the name and Rose’s together in Harry’s ABC of Cocktails, which it dates to 1922 (the Internet Archive copy is the second impression), where equal parts Plymouth gin and Rose’s lime cordial are “a very popular beverage in the Navy”. Whether the name came from the boring tool or from a naval surgeon called Gimlette is unknown, and Cigar Aficionado calls the etymology disputed.
The Cordial Question
A Gimlet made with cordial tastes of preserved lime: rounder than fresh juice, sweet at the edges and faintly cooked, closer to lime peel than to a squeezed lime.
Rose’s is the historic bottle. Craft cordials taste brighter, and a home-made one, from fresh juice, sugar and zest, keeps the most peel oil. In a drink of two ingredients, the cordial is half the result.
Chandler’s Half and Half
Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, published in 1953, says, as Cigar Aficionado quotes it, that a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else. The ratio is very sweet by current taste, and Cigar Aficionado prefers two to four parts gin.
Ours is 60ml of gin to 22.5ml of cordial. That keeps the gin in front and the lime behind it, and it matches our Vodka Gimlet measure for measure.
Three Gimlets Compared
The Gimlet beside Chandler’s (as Cigar Aficionado quotes The Long Goodbye), the fresh-lime version and the Vodka Gimlet
Gimlet (ours)
- Spec
- 60ml gin, 22.5ml lime cordial
- Method
- Stirred, served up
- UK units
- About 2.4
Chandler’s Gimlet, 1953
- Spec
- Half gin, half Rose’s lime juice
- Method
- Not stated
- UK units
- Depends on the pour
Fresh-lime Gimlet
- Spec
- 60ml gin, 22.5ml fresh lime, 15ml syrup
- Method
- Shaken, double strained
- UK units
- About 2.4
Vodka Gimlet
- Spec
- 60ml vodka, 22.5ml lime cordial
- Method
- Stirred, served up
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Spec | Method | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gimlet (ours) | 60ml gin, 22.5ml lime cordial | Stirred, served up | About 2.4 |
| Chandler’s Gimlet, 1953 | Half gin, half Rose’s lime juice | Not stated | Depends on the pour |
| Fresh-lime Gimlet | 60ml gin, 22.5ml fresh lime, 15ml syrup | Shaken, double strained | About 2.4 |
| Vodka Gimlet | 60ml vodka, 22.5ml lime cordial | Stirred, served up | About 2.4 |
How to Serve It
Stirred and strained into a coupe from the freezer, with a lime wheel. With two ingredients there is nothing to hide a warm drink, so it is best in the first few minutes.
For the same measures on vodka, make a Vodka Gimlet; for gin, lime and mint shaken, a Southside; add cucumber and it becomes an Eastside.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Should a Gimlet be made with cordial or fresh lime?
Where does the name Gimlet come from?
Is the Gimlet a Royal Navy drink?
What ratio should a Gimlet be?
What gin works best in a Gimlet?
Should a Gimlet be shaken or stirred?
How strong is a Gimlet?
Can you make a Gimlet without lime cordial?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Cigar Aficionado (Jack Bettridge), “The Gimlet” (named-author drinks writer: the Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 (half Plymouth gin, half Rose’s lime juice); Chandler’s The Long Goodbye (1953): “A real Gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else”; the Gimlette etymology is disputed; two to four parts gin preferred).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Paul Clarke), “A Gimlet” (secondary source: the Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 and Lauchlan Rose’s alcohol-free preserving process the same year; the name and Rose’s in Harry’s ABC of Cocktails, 1922; the Gillette Cocktail of 1917; fresh-lime and vodka versions).
- Internet Archive (vintage-cocktail-books-euvs), “Harry of Ciro’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails (1923, second impression)” (primary source: 99. Gimlet: half Coates’ Plymouth gin, half Rose’s lime juice cordial, stir and serve in the same glass, “a very popular beverage in the Navy”).
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Vodka Gimlet
A Vodka Gimlet is 60ml vodka and 22.5ml lime cordial, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, then finished with a lime wheel. This is the Gimlet with vodka in place of gin, at the same measures, and comes to about 2.4 UK units. With no juniper, the cordial leads. The drink tastes of preserved lime: rounder than fresh juice, sweet at the edges and faintly bitter from the peel. Both bottles have to be good, because the glass holds nothing else. The Oxford Companion puts the name in print in 1922, with gin, and says vodka eventually supplanted gin in many late-twentieth-century Gimlets. For a sharper drink, shake the vodka with fresh lime and syrup instead.
Daiquiri
A Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 20ml fresh lime juice and two bar spoons of caster sugar. Stir the sugar into the rum and lime in the shaker until it dissolves, then add ice, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strain into a chilled coupe. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and its method dissolves the sugar first too. The name belongs to Daiquirí, an iron-mining district and beach near Santiago de Cuba. Difford’s Guide credits Jennings Stockton Cox, an American engineer who led one of the first mining parties into Cuba’s iron-ore country after the Spanish-American War of 1898; the Oxford Companion has him making or supervising the first Daiquiri in 1896, and a Santiago bartender naming it in 1908. Difford’s says Constantino Ribalaigua Vert of Havana’s El Floridita made the frozen version famous. With three ingredients and no liqueur or bitters, the Daiquiri hides nothing. A flat rum, tired lime or undissolved sugar shows in the first sip.
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. The Oxford Companion, in an entry by Eric Felten, says the story that it was born in the speakeasies of Chicago’s South Side is incorrect: the drink evolved from the Mint Juleps made at Snedecor’s Tavern on Long Island, which became the Southside Sportsman’s Club, and it has long been the house drink at New York’s 21 Club. The drink does not depend on any of that. 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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026