Monday, July 14, 2008

Cocktail of the Week #44: Pimm's Cup

I've already commented on my preferred cocktail, but after manhattans, Pimm's Cup is my favorite drink (third after beer, actually). Pimm's is a seasonal drink - while it's available year round, it tastes best on a hot summer day, especially if the weather is humid. This summer, with all the rain and flooding throughout the Midwest, the weather is more than perfect for Pimm's.

Just not this recipe.

A Pimm's Cup should only contain Pimm's No. 1, lemon-lime soda and a lemon wedge... although there are many variations on what one may use for a garnish. (One friend of ours practically builds a fruit salad into the darn thing.) The flavor should be light, refreshing, and startlingly complex. As one writer whose name escapes me once put it, a Pimm's Cup tastes like an English garden on a fine sunny afternoon.

But I ramble on.

The recipe in this deck calls for adding gin and club soda to Pimm's No. 1 in place of the lemon-lime soda! We found this concept of adding more alcohol to an otherwise perfectly balanced drink distressing, but in the interest of exploration we sallied forth and made the drink per the recipe on the card.

It sucked.

We're rating this one a miss, but we must implore you: buy a bottle of Pimm's No. 1 and follow the recipe on the bottle on a hot - preferably humid - summer's day. You will not be disappointed.

Scoreboard.
Hits: 33
Misses: 17

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