Name: Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based and Pimm's Cup-like)
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 22.5 ml Gin; 22.5 ml Orange Curaçao; 22.5 ml Rosso/sweet vermouth; 2 dash Aromatic bitters; 60 ml Ginger ale; 60 ml Cola

Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based & Pimm's Cup-like)
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Glass:

Serve in a Collins glass

Ingredients:
³⁄₄ fl oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
³⁄₄ fl oz	Ferrand Dry Curaçao liqueur
³⁄₄ fl oz	Strucchi Rosso Vermouth chilled
2 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters
2 fl oz	Thomas Henry Ginger Ale chilled
2 fl oz	Cola chilled

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COLLINS GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon and orange slice wheels, strawberry slices and mint sprigs (and borage flowers when in season).

How to make:

POUR all ingredients into glass.
Half fill glass with ice.
Add a citrus slice and a couple of mint leaves from garnish
Fill to brim with ice.

Garnish:

Finish with rest of garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Rosso/rouge/sweet vermouth (di Torino) - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based & Pimm's Cup-like) lifestyle image

Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based & Pimm's Cup-like) lifestyle thumbnail

Review:

This long, refreshing, fruity cocktail mimics the characteristics of a Pimm's Cup but with the punch and fullness flavour, reminiscent of distant decades when Pimm's No.1 benefited from a full 9% more alc./vol. than it does today.

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Variations/similar cocktails:

For more recipes see Fruit Cups and Pimm's.

History:

Created in 2011 by yours truly in an attempt to improve on and add some oomph to a Pimm's Cup.

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

One serving of Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based & Pimm's Cup-like) contains 205 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
10.7% alc./vol. (21.41° proof)
17.5 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 18 comments for Difford's Fruit Cup No.1 (gin based & Pimm's Cup-like).
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Guy Daniels

19th July at 15:53

Hello fellow discerning drinkers. I’m going to be prepping a batch of this to serve to half a dozen guests, saving me time and effort. But I’m thinking that I would need to hold back on the ginger ale and cola, adding them at the serve to preserve the fizz. What is best practice for this? Thanks

Simon Difford

19th July at 17:25

Yes, mix the first 4 ingredients together and then measure 67.5ml (2.25oz) of the mix into each ice-filled glass. Then top each glass with equal parts ginger ale and cola.

2 replies

David Holland

22nd April at 17:58

Used 25ml Gordon's, 25ml Martini Rosso and in the absence of Dry Curacao split 12.5ml Orange Curacao and 12.5ml Calvados topped up with the Ginger Ale and Cola. A delightfully boozy and refined Pimm's cup.

Chris Dimal

17th April at 21:07

Great summer drink with a bit of a backbone. For me the best fruit cup by far. I also would suggest having a gin that is stronger than 43% to really make it alive.

Monkey Beng

3rd November 2025 at 12:50

Perfect but I really wonder how the picture can be so clear with cola, rosso and ginger ale inside. Mine is dark...!?

Annabelle Egginton

12th July 2025 at 17:48

I prefer this to Pimms now

Richard Forbes

16th July 2024 at 16:48

There is something unusual about this recipe, in my "You Can Make" list I can see all of the other fruit cups except this one, and of course I have gin which is the only different ingredient

Simon Difford

17th July 2024 at 09:56

Hi Richard. If you haven't seen a reason for this issue, please email me so our IT team can look into it. simon.difford@diffordsguide.com

Avery Garnett

30th March 2024 at 17:56

as there doesn't seem to be a way to comment on the fruit cup article as a whole: having tried the gin (1), brandy (3), and tequila (7) cups I also wondered about what this mythical 16 could be. Having 1 serving of the mix (everything except spirit) left, I figured I would try to work out a missing option...and I tried aquavit. I don't think I'd recommend that one... :)

Avery Garnett

30th March 2024 at 16:49

It's nice. It tastes an awful lot like Pimms despite the ingredient list making me think "this is nothing like Pimms". I do think it needs a little less cola though, as it seems to take over a little.

Peter M

3rd August 2025 at 22:58

FWIW, I just tried this using Fever-Tree Distillers Cola and the cola didn't seem to take over.

Mel McGregor

28th January 2024 at 06:37

Lovely! I only had ginger beer which made this quite sweet, I can imagine the ginger ale would make it more dry, which would be perfect! As mentioned below, mine is much darker too.

Eva S.

3rd July 2023 at 04:55

Tried this for the first time today and loved it! Easy to build snd easy to drink. Tried it with the celery bitters someone suggested and I will say they added something nice to this already lovely cocktail.

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