2000s American craft adaptation.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| ¾ oz · 22 ml | LEMON JUICE | |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | SIMPLE SYRUP | |
| 4 wedges | CUCUMBER | |
| 3 oz · 90 ml | SODA WATER |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.25 oz mixed with ice, 0.8 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Shaken: +20 % of the pre-batch, +0.65 oz of water |
| Topped | Poured after the melt, kept whole: soda water 3 oz, no alcohol |
| Served | 3.25 + 0.65 + 3 = 6.9 oz in the glass, 0.8 oz of it alcohol |
| Strength | 0.8 ÷ 6.9 = 11.6 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.8 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 19 g · about 131 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
ALSO IN Negroni · Martini · Gimlet · Gin & Tonic · Aviation · Corpse Reviver #2 · French 75 · Bramble
FROM LEMON · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
ALSO IN Margarita · Mojito · Daiquiri · Whiskey Sour · Gimlet · Moscow Mule · Paper Plane · Aviation
A Tom Collins with cucumber: gin, lemon, sugar, muddled cucumber and soda. Nonadienal from cucumber flesh adds a soft vegetal background behind the typical alpha-pinene and citral.
An obvious-in-retrospect variation on the Tom Collins, adapted from the Eastside template. The Cucumber Collins emerged in multiple American craft bars roughly simultaneously around 2008–2010. The drink works because cucumber's compounds are mild enough not to overwhelm the simpler Collins format, where stronger herbs (mint, basil, sage) would dominate.
