Pimm’s Cup

All the Bartending You Can Learn From Books

August 8th, 2007 | Published in liqueur, mixers

So, here it is. Wednesday night and I’m home, enjoying a nice salad Niçoise and watching evening creep over the Observatory. I’d kill for a perfectly chilled glass of sauvignon blanc, but I’ve run out of white wine! Alas, what’s a lass to do?

When that lass is yours truly, she hits the internet for inspiration. Nothing too sweet, but light and refreshing. There’s a four-pack of ginger beer in the fridge. It’s a Pimm’s Cup all but made already!

Pimm’s is one of the liquors I consider a sleeper hit of the bar. Pimm’s No. 1 Cup is a gin-based spirit, dark brown in color with a spicy, citrusy and herbaceous character. It’s very popular in England, where it originates, and bartenders or others in the know use it for all manner of summer libations. The most popular recipe is the Pimm’s Cup, which generally starts out with a 2:1 ratio of lemonade, ginger ale or 7-Up to Pimm’s. There are about as many variations on the recipe as there are people who mix it (Wikipedia alone lists about fifteen variations on the theme). The original—and by that I mean British—is garnished with borage leaves and fruit but, since borage tends to be in short supply Stateside (unless you live in San Francisco), strips of cucumber are substituted; other variations call for the addition of gin, lime juice and/or sundry other cocktail odds and ends.* In the hundred-plus years of its existence, Pimm’s has become the English summer drink of choice due to its moderate alcohol content and light, refreshing body. The Pimm’s Cup cocktail is especially popular at Wimbledon, akin to the Julep at the Kentucky Derby or the margarita at a Jimmy Buffett concert.

Pimm’s Cup

2 oz Pimm’s No. 1 Cup
ginger beer
slice of lemon

Add the Pimm’s to a Collins glass filled with ice. Fill with ginger beer and add a dash of lemon juice. Garnish with lemon twist, cucumber and fresh mint.

Though the world is swimming with delightful and delicious recipes, this time around I went a little wild and combined the recipe from my favorite online resource, CocktailDB, with a ginger-syrup-less version of the Pimm’s Cup served at San Francisco’s Bambuddha Lounge (yeah, I know—I wasn’t much on the name but it was our hotel bar).

In my little world, this is the emblematic drink of summer. Moreso than pretty much any other drink, it is to a summer evening what a mug of hot spiced cider is to a cold winter night. A Pimm’s Cup is pervasive and evasive at the same time—it looks and tastes like a spicy, lemon-drenched glass of iced tea, only better. It’s one of the drinks that you’ll find yourself coming back to over and over when you want something simple yet complex, or when you just want to sit back, listen to the crickets and enjoy the sunset.

*If you’re interested, The Bottle Gang has an excellent writeup of the history and mechanics of the drink, including ways to approximate the base for those who can’t find Pimm’s locally.