Celery Gimlet
In my previous post, I made reference to the Celery Gimlet. Allow me to elaborate.
It’s a variation on the classic Gimlet, which dates from the 19th century. The Gimlet is simplicity itself: gin, lime juice, and sugar. It may be the original sour cocktail, that category of drinks built from the trifecta of booze, citrus, and sweetener. By the Mad-Men era, the Gimlet recipe had morphed into a 50/50 mix of gin and Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial (ugh!). Thankfully, modern mixologists have rescued the drink from that too-sweet purgatory and returned the Gimlet to its sour roots.
To craft the Celery version, I used the original ingredients as a starting point. The astringent bite of juniper and lime called for an equally assertive celery presence. Celery bitters were a good start, but too subtle for my taste. I tried to up the ante with celery-infused simple syrup, but the flavor was still too muted. I finally landed on muddled celery – it yielded the bright celery notes I was shooting for and was the final addition to the first recipe.
In the course of my experimentation, I also tried celery salt. Its celery flavor was similarly underwhelming, but the salinity brought forth savory vegetal elements that I had not noticed. I decided to lean into those flavors by incorporating an herbal liqueur. Chartreuse was the obvious choice; it plays the same role in the Last Word, another gin-and-lime-based cocktail. A tiny splash was sufficient, unveiling a hidden complexity that rewarded each sip. And so, what began as a failed experiment ultimately gave rise to my favorite version, recipe #2. Enjoy!
h.
Celery Gimlet #1
1 stalk celery, cut into ½” chunks
2 oz gin, London dry style
½ oz lime juice
½ oz simple syrup
2 dashes celery bitters
Celery Gimlet #2
1 stalk celery, cut into ½” chunks
1 pinch of sea salt
2 oz gin, London dry style
¾ oz lime juice
½ oz simple syrup
¼ oz Green Chartreuse
2 dashes celery bitters
Shaker, muddler, Hawthorne strainer, rocks glass
Muddle celery and lime juice (and salt, if called for) in shaker; add remaining ingredients; half-fill with ice; shake until well chilled; strain into glass over ice.