One Bottle, One Drink – Blood Orange Gimlet

It’s been a while since I wrote the last article in this series. However, sometimes there are bottles you just have to revisit from time to time. In this case, this applies to the gin as well as to the eau de vie. Both are excellent spirits which enrich each liquor cabinet. On top of that, I just had to finally mix up a drink with my homemade blood orange cordial.

High quality gin – high quality eau de ve

Though, the blood orange season is way over, I did not come around to mix up a Gimlet with my blood orange cordial until now. I made it according to the Mixology recipe I already featured here. Yet, I also added a bit of malic acid to the cordial, because blood oranges do not have enough acidity for a cordial on their own. Apart from that, the combination of gin, lime and the cordial would probably have resulted in a great drink. Nevertheless, I decided to also use a bit of blood orange eau de vie. So, apart from the Capreolus Garden Swift Gin I chose the Spiritus Rex Bloody O for a high-quality pairing. In my opinion, a Gimlet can use a splash of lime juice and to better incorporate that I like to shake the drink. Yet, if you prefer your Gimlet stirred and without fresh lime juice, this will also work here.

Excellent combination of flavours

The Gimlet starts off with clear blood orange and juniper notes. However, after a short while, similar to the “Blackberry Stone” drink, the curry leaves note of the Garden Swift Gin hit. Still, the Bloody O can stand up to the great number of spice notes and nicely balances out the cocktail. It is funny how little eau de vie you need to add a noticeable flavour. Apart from that, the cordial and the lime juice bring the necessary amount of acidity to the mix. All in all, the blood orange flavoured Gimlet has a great balance which makes it an excellent drink to sip on hot summer nights when the air has cooled off a bit.