*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston, originally published in this week’s Dig.
by Pink Lady
Consider the gimlet: Like the Manhattan, it’s a drink that’s outlasted many of its contemporaries and is still commonly served in the modern bar. It’s a drink we could categorize as exempt from extinction … or utterly bulletproof.
The gimlet was born over 100 years ago on the seven seas. Its medicinal and Navy parentage has origins in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1867, which enforced a daily ration of citrus juice for all sailors to prevent scurvy. That same year, Lauchlin Rose introduced a sweetened lime juice that could be preserved without alcohol, known as a lime cordial. It had the same effect as the fresh-squeezed stuff but was less bracing on the palate. Rose’s Lime Juice can still be found behind even the most basic bars today. Add a little English gin to your Rose’s, and you’ve got yourself a cocktail to last through the ages.
Many modern bartenders will call a drink made with gin, fresh lime juice and simple syrup a gimlet. While that may taste refreshing and delicious, a gimlet it is not. The original gimlet recipe calls for lime cordial (Rose’s to be exact), and for many bartenders, this is the only way it can be made.
We can’t vouch for the Rose’s of yesteryear, but the modern incarnation is intensely sweet and tastes a little too artificial for our liking. Lime cordial doesn’t have to be this way. A well-made lime (or lemon, or grapefruit) cordial is bright and refreshing. Since cordial is already sweet, you can dispense with the simple syrup and make great drinks quickly with just a bottle of homemade stuff in your fridge. Add spirit, ice and whatever else inspires you.
The lime cordial recipe below comes to us by way of Chicago, from bartender Todd Appel of the Crimson Lounge and Piranha Bros. Cocktail Catering and Bar Planning. It pretty much melted our faces when we sampled it. The recipe’s easy and approachable, and a perfect addition to the syrups series. Try yours in a [faux] gimlet today.
TODD APPEL’S LIME CORDIAL
*To preserve the lime juice in an old-fashioned way, use tartaric acid and citric acid. Lime cordial will last up to six weeks refrigerated.
1 part fresh-squeezed lime juice
1.25 parts sugar
10-15 limes, zested
tartaric acid (optional)
citric acid (optional)
Zest limes, taking care to remove all of the green part and only the green part (white pith is bitter). Cook lime juice with sugar, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add lime zest and cool. Strain out lime zest, bottle and refrigerate.
*If using citric acid and tartaric acid, use 2 tsp each per quart of lime cordial.
Read more of Todd’s own recipes on his blog, Splash Mix Cocktails with Todd Appel. Todd was also runner up in Season 2 of a little bartender reality show, On The Rocks, which you can check out here.
Cin-cin!
fancybrandy
Hanky Panky
joseypackard
Pink Lady
Pinky Gonzales
Hoskins
thepinkgin
Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails - Boston 
This prods me to do a too-long differed experiment: making a Gimlet with a homemade version of Rose’s, using key lime juice.
Having dated a Gimlet fan, but also wanting to get high fructose out of picture, I made fumbling attempts at using fresh juice, with lackluster results. Research seemed to indicate that the conundrum centered on the difference between ordinary limes and key limes.
Thus, the inkling for “homemade” Rose’s, akin to the difference between Rose’s Grenadine and the stuff you make from actual juice.
Shall report the results.
I’ve been experimenting on cordials, and started our with Todd’s approach via his website, which seems a little different a year on than the version you have here.
My conclusion was that I need more of a “cooked” flavor, and a more concentration of flavor. To the original batch, I added (in two episodes) more lime juice, boiled to reduce it to half the original volume. Finally, I achieved the intensity I love in Rose’s (which, btw, is NOT a terribly chemical-laden product, although I hate the knowledge that it’s made from HFCS).
yesterday, I tried a grapefruit version. Here’s my tactic:
Zest 3 or 4 large grapefruits. Reserve the zest (doesn’t have to be ALL the zest). Juice the fruit, and strain. Measure the juice– should be over 16 oz.– then put in a small pan to boil.
Watch it… keep a (liquid) measuring cup at the ready. Measure it now and then, to check the progress of the reduction. When it’s reduced to half its original volume, remove it from the stove, and add it to the zest. Add 1/2 the volume of cane sugar, and stir to dissolve. That is: if you’ve now got 8oz of reduced GF juice, add 4 oz (by volume) of cane sugar.
After steeping at least 15 minutes, strain into a bottle or jar.
I love what I’ve got! My only complaint is that while it’s very flavorful, it’s not quite acidic enough for use as a lime cordial, i.e. as a grapefruit gimlet.
Here’s what I’ve devised:
GRAPEFRUIT GIMLETTE
1.5 oz light rum
.75 oz grapefruit cordial
.5 oz lemon juice
a couple of dashes of Fee’s grapefruit bitters
Shake long and hard with a lot of ice. This benefits from allowing a bit of dilution! Strain into cocktail glass.
Alternately, pour it all over rocks in a DOF or tall glass, then fill w soda.
Regards from Minneapolis!
p.s. I can’t agree with your equating Rose’s Lime Cordial with Rose’s Grenadine. The Lime is, IMO, still unique, classic, and delicious. Their Grenadine, on the other hand, is an abomination! The lime cordial is made of actual LIME JUICE, but the so-called grenadine has nothing of pomegranate in it– just redness and HFCS, as far as I can tell. My own pet grenadine is Routin 1883’s “Grenade,” made with actual pomegranate.
An addendum:
That “Gimlette” can obviously be made with gin, which is excellent, but I like it a lot with light rum, just as I do a “real” Gimlet.