Eastside Ricky

Name: Eastside Ricky
Ingredients: 2 oz London dry gin — Beefeaters; ¾ oz lime juice; ¾ oz simple syrup; 3–4 oz soda water; 6–8 mint leaves; 2–3 cucumber slices; mint crown stuck through the middle of a cucumber coin

collins · gin

Made for the kind of afternoon that's too hot to be outside and too early to be drinking anything serious. Press the cucumber and mint rather than grinding them — pulverized mint tastes like a freshly mowed lawn. The soda handles the pacing, which is more than I manage.

Ingredients

Where there's a range: the low end is lighter, the high end is fuller.

2 ozLondon dry gin — Beefeaters
¾ ozlime juice
¾ ozsimple syrup
3–4 ozsoda water
6–8mint leaves
2–3cucumber slices

Garnish

mint crown stuck through the middle of a cucumber coin

Method

Muddle cucumber and mint in the bottom of a shaker tin. Add liquid ingredients (with the exception of the soda water) and ice, seal and shake hard. Strain into a tall glass over fresh ice and top with 3-4oz soda water, and garnish with a mint crown stuck through the middle of a cucumber coin.