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.
Variations
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel
Ingredients
60ml
A juniper-led London Dry or Plymouth gin at 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; 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 is half gin and half Rose’s; 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. Rose’s works; a home-made cordial 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. Royal Navy sailors on long voyages were issued a daily ration of lemon or lime juice from 1795, and in 1867 Lauchlan Rose, a ship chandler in Leith, patented a way of preserving lime juice with sugar instead of alcohol. Rose’s lime cordial is the bottle the drink grew up on.
The drink’s name is first recorded in 1928. Whether it came from the boring tool or from a naval surgeon called Gimlette is unknown, and nothing in the surgeon’s obituaries connects him to it.
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 that a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else. The line is quoted more than any recipe, and the ratio is very sweet by current taste.
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, 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. 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.
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?
You Might Also Like
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 gin Gimlet is the older drink. The vodka version is usually dated to the decades after the Second World War, when vodka spread through American bars. 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. The drink is usually credited to Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer in Cuba around the Spanish-American War of 1898. Constantino Ribalaigua Vert later refined and popularised it in Havana at El Floridita. 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. 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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026