Southside
Nobody owns the Southside’s origin story, which is half its charm. New York claims it for the 21 Club, the speakeasy where it was the house pour for the well-dressed end of Prohibition; Long Island claims it for the Southside Sportsmen’s Club, where mint from the kitchen garden met gin after the shooting; Chicago claims it for the South Side itself, where mobs allegedly softened harsh bootleg gin with lemon, sugar and mint. All three stories involve gin that needed forgiving and mint that obliged. What emerged is the Mojito’s cooler-headed cousin: gin, citrus, sugar and mint, shaken and strained into a coupe rather than built long over ice. Without soda and crushed ice diluting the frame, the drink is more concentrated and more elegant, the mint reading as perfume rather than salad, the gin’s botanicals and the herb finishing each other’s sentences. It survived Prohibition for the simplest reason: it never needed bad gin to justify itself. With a good London Dry the Southside is one of the finest simple gin sours in the canon, a drink that dresses for dinner where the Mojito dresses for the beach.
Variations
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Mint Leaf floated shiny side up
Ingredients
60ml
The foundation: a crisp London Dry for the classic reading, or a citrus-led contemporary gin for a softer, summery one. Either way it finishes the mint’s sentences.
30ml
Lemon rather than lime, which is the fork this drink is known for. The official specification takes lemon at thirty millilitres against sixty of gin, and the extra five over a standard sour measure is doing real work: mint reads as sweet before it reads as green, and the drink needs the acid to keep it from turning into a julep.
15ml
Fifteen millilitres against thirty of lemon is a dry balance, which is what keeps the drink crisp rather than merely refreshing. Mint reads as sweetness before it reads as anything else, so a heavier hand here turns the whole thing cloying.
5 to 6 leaves
Whole leaves, straight into the shaker: ten seconds of hard shaking with ice bruises them exactly enough. Muddling shreds them into bitterness.
Instructions
Add the gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and mint leaves to a shaker.
For a softer, rounder drink, add a few drops of egg white. The specification lists it as optional and it changes the texture rather than the flavour.
Fill with ice and shake vigorously for 10 to 12 seconds, harder still if the egg white is in.
Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass to catch the mint fragments.
Garnish with a mint sprig and serve.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification, listed as South Side; method ours). Last checked 16 August 2026.
Expert Tip
Skip the muddler. Ten seconds of hard shaking with ice bruises the mint exactly enough to release its oils without shredding the leaves into bitterness, and this is one of very few drinks where the ice does the muddling better than a muddler would. Double strain, always. The shake will leave fragments, and a Southside should arrive clean as glass; the fine strainer is what separates this from a swamp in a coupe. Slap the garnish leaf before floating it. The drink's aroma is half of what it has to say, and a leaf laid on the surface untouched contributes nothing at all. One firm clap between the palms, shiny side up, and nothing else on the glass.
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Nobody owns the Southside’s origin, which is half its charm. New York claims it for the 21 Club, where it was the house pour for the well-dressed end of Prohibition; Long Island claims it for the Southside Sportsmen’s Club, where garden mint met gin after the shooting; Chicago claims it for the South Side itself, where the mobs allegedly softened harsh bootleg gin with lemon, sugar and mint. All three stories involve gin that needed forgiving and mint that obliged, and the drink outlived every one of its alibis.
The Mint Technique
Whole leaves go into the shaker un-muddled: ten seconds of hard shaking with ice bruises them exactly enough, extracting oil without shredding the leaves into bitterness, and the double strain removes the evidence. The garnish leaf gets a slap first, because aroma is half of what the drink has to say. Muddling is the error that turns a Southside into a swamp.
Gin Selection
A juniper-led London Dry gives the classic reading, crisp and dry against the mint; a citrus-forward contemporary gin turns the drink summery and soft. Either works, and the bottle changes this drink more than it changes most.
What does not work is anything heavily sweetened. The Southside is already carrying sugar and mint, and a gin that arrives sweet leaves nothing for the lemon to cut against.
The Royale
The Southside Royale tops the same shaken spec with champagne in a flute, and needs no other excuse: it lengthens the drink, lifts the mint and turns a very good sour into an occasion. It is also the bridge to the drink’s glamorous cousins, the French 75 first among them.
How to Serve It
Up, in a chilled coupe, early in the evening: this is an aperitif-hour drink whose crispness is wasted after a heavy meal. One floated mint leaf, shiny side up, and nothing else.
Why It Is Not a Mojito
The two drinks share a flavour family and almost nothing else structurally.
A Mojito is built long over crushed ice with soda, which means it is diluted by design and drunk slowly as it opens up. A Southside is shaken and strained up, which concentrates everything: no soda, no melting crushed ice, and a fixed dilution set at the moment of the shake.
The result is a considerably more intense drink from the same ingredients. The mint reads as perfume rather than as salad, the gin's botanicals and the herb finish each other's sentences, and the whole thing lands as elegant where the Mojito lands as refreshing. Both are correct; they are answering different questions.
Lemon or Lime
The specification calls for lemon. A great many bars pour lime, and both have good arguments behind them.
Lemon is rounder and slightly sweeter, and it sits more gently against mint, which is why the official build and several Prohibition-era versions prefer it. Lime is sharper and more aromatic, and it pushes the drink toward a Mojito without the soda. The lime build keeps its own measures as a variation, because it is not simply the official recipe with a different fruit.
Splitting the two, at say twenty millilitres of lemon to ten of lime, is a legitimate house move and worth trying once the standard version is familiar. What does not work is bottled anything: at thirty millilitres in a four-ingredient drink, the citrus is fully exposed.
The Spirit
GinA flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a Southside and a Mojito?
Same flavour family, different build: the Mojito is built long over crushed ice with soda and rum, while the Southside is gin, shaken and served up. The short format concentrates everything, making the Southside the more elegant, spirit-forward reading.
Should I muddle the mint?
No. Shake whole leaves with the ice, which bruises them exactly enough to release the oils, then double strain. Muddling tears the leaf and shreds mint into bitter fragments that no strainer fully removes, and it is the single error that turns a Southside into a swamp.
What is a Southside Royale?
The same shaken drink topped with champagne or a dry sparkling wine, usually served in a flute. It lengthens the drink, lifts the mint aromatics considerably, and turns a very good sour into an occasion. It is also the bridge to the French 75 and its relatives.
Master the Techniques
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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