Libation, New York, 2004.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| ¾ oz · 22 ml | LIME JUICE | |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | SIMPLE SYRUP | |
| 6 leaves | MINT | |
| 3 wedges | CUCUMBER |
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 |
| Served | 3.25 + 0.65 = 3.9 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.8 ÷ 3.9 = 20.5 % 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 MINT · the cooling sensation
A cyclic alcohol that hijacks TRPM8, the same cold-sensing receptor that fires when the skin actually hits a cool surface. The "cooling" sensation is neurological, not thermal; the drink isn't cold, the nerves just think it is. Peppermint carries the most; a mojito gets a fraction of the real thing from muddled mint leaves. Same chemistry powers menthol cigarettes, cough drops, and the post-shave aftershock of anything labeled "icy."
ALSO IN Mojito · Mint Julep · Stinger · Grasshopper · Old Cuban · Whiskey Smash · Cynar Julep · Maid in Cuba
FROM LIME · 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
Gin, lime, sugar, muddled cucumber and mint. Nonadienal from cucumber, carvone from mint and alpha-pinene from gin form a botanical trio that reads as garden-fresh. It is green enough to be taken for a non-alcoholic cooler on the first sip.
Created by George Delgado at Libation on New York's Lower East Side in 2004, and spread in Milk & Honey's served-up form, the Eastside is one of the defining cocktails of the 'farm-to-glass' movement that took hold through the 2000s and 2010s. The cucumber-mint-gin combination became hugely influential: countless variations followed (Cucumber Collins, Cucumber Mule, dozens of riffs) all tracing back to this New York original.
