Pimm’s No. 1

Usage

One part Pimm’s to three parts lemonade over ice, with cucumber, mint and fruit. That ratio is the drink rather than a suggestion, since at 25% the bottle needs the length to make sense of itself.

An Oyster Bar’s House Cup

James Pimm ran a London oyster bar in the 1840s and served his own house cup: gin infused with herbs and spices, offered as an aid to digestion and poured in a small tankard called the No. 1 Cup. The name outgrew the tankard.

Large-scale production began in 1851, and the bottle has carried the same guarded recipe since, known in full to only a small number of custodians. That secrecy has held for longer than most of the brands that claim it.

The Other Numbers

The numbered cups multiplied after it. Brandy, rum, whisky and vodka versions came and mostly went, and No. 1, the original gin cup, is the one that survived at scale.

The numbering is therefore historical rather than a range in current production, which is why asking for a No. 3 or a No. 6 will get you a blank look in most bars. Diageo owns the brand now, and the 25% bottling remains the standard.

It Is a Liqueur, Not a Gin

At 25% it is liqueur strength, which is worth knowing before anything else about the bottle. A drink built on it as though it were a gin arrives sweet and heavy rather than strong.

That is why the classic serve lengthens it with three parts lemonade. Stronger pours miss the sessionable point of the drink, and the ratio is doing the same job the tonic does in a gin and tonic rather than merely adding volume.

The Cup

Its serve defines an English summer: one part Pimm’s, three parts lemonade, cucumber, mint and fruit over plenty of ice. The Pimm’s Cup turned a Victorian digestive into the drink of garden parties, and the formula has not needed changing.

The fruit is garnish rather than salad. Cucumber, strawberry, orange and mint each contribute something, and a glass packed with everything in the fruit bowl dilutes the drink and makes it awkward to hold.

Cucumber is the one that is genuinely structural rather than decorative. It reads against the bitter orange in a way strawberry does not, which is why it appears in every serious version of the serve and why a Cup without it tastes flatter.

Top Tips

• The classic ratio is one part Pimm’s to three parts lemonade: stronger pours miss the sessionable point of the drink.
• Fruit is garnish, not salad: cucumber, strawberry, orange and mint earn their place.
• At 25% ABV it is a liqueur, not a gin: it needs its lemonade, or something doing the same work.

Possible Substitutions

• Sweet vermouth plus a splash of gin and orange bitters: the emergency rebuild
• Another branded fruit cup: several exist, none older