Name: Gin Basil Smash
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 12 fresh Basil leaves; 60 ml Gin; 22.5 ml Lemon juice; 10 ml Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1)

Ingredients

12 fresh

Basil leaves

2 fl oz

Hayman's London Dry Gin

3/4 fl oz

Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

1/3 fl oz

Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water) 65.0°Brix

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.

Prepare garnish of three basil sprigs..

Method

MUDDLE basil sprigs (no need to pluck leaves from stem) in base of shaker.

Add other ingredients and SHAKE with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

Garnish with basil sprig bouquet.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Alcohol content:

We don't have enough information to calculate the alc./vol., but based on known ingredients, this recipe contains at least:

19.5 grams of pure alcohol

History

Created in the summer of 2008 by Jörg Meyer at Le Lion • Bar de Paris, Hamburg, Germany and originally named Gin Pesto. Jörg blogged about his new creation on the 10th of July 2008 and from that point, it started to quickly grow in popularity to become internationally known, also becoming better known as the Gin Basil Smash.

Review

Jörg, the creator of this cocktail, says, "Better too much than not enough basil in this drink". He also specifies that the basil is muddled rather than just broken by the action of shaking as this produces a greener drink. He adds "Keep in mind: 5 cl Gin is not enough; 6 cl Gin is the recipe; 7 cl Gin is LOVE!"

AKA: Gin Pesto

Comments & Discussion

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Rob Macpherson 2 weeks ago

Added 15ml of yellow charteuse to this recipe and it brought a lovely depth of flavour.

Also works well 50/50 split between normal gin and 0% gin for an equally refreshing, less boozy option

Bruce Bowman 1 month ago

This cocktail is fantastic made with basil fresh from the garden. One of my favorite summer drinks.

Chris Brislawn 2 months ago

A gin-based variant of the mint julep. My wife just planted a bunch of basil for the summer so we had to try this to celebrate World Gin Day. Next time I'll try serving it over crushed ice in our olde julep cups.

Patrick Oberlin 2 months ago

Very nearly perfect! After the first sip, my wife and I looked at each other with astonishment and said it tastes like a mojito—and we _love_ a good mojito.

I finally found the perfect drink to use up the otherwise lackluster Kirkland signature gin!

Matthew Mason 6 months ago

I look forward to the day the rain finally stops pouring here in the UK and I can enjoy one of these in the sunshine ☀️

Harry 6 months ago

Nothing but rain for the last month... ☀️

Justin Aniello 6 months ago

Whoa boy is that basil heavy, which is a good thing. Personally think lime would be more my preference but do love the basil.

Bocman 9 months ago

If you follow this recipe, you can find it may be too boozy 🥃
For girlfriend I reduce gin to 45 ml and add more sugar 😄

Loz Horner 9 months ago

12 fresh basil leaves was very basil-y, so added a little extra syrup and spot more lemon. Delicious. A good one with pizza on summer evenings methinks.

Egg McKenzie 1 year ago

I made this with some fairly lacklustre basil from the windowsill and it was still delicious. I will be buying some much more vibrant basil at the weekend to unlock the drink’s true potential. I followed mr jörg’s tip that ‘70ml gin is love’ and did not regret it.

Egg McKenzie 1 year ago

well I bought better basil and it was too much. I guess there’s a lot of variety in the size etc of basil leaves. will have to try again!

Anne Cunningham 1 year ago

Also, can we add photos? I can’t see a way to do it,

Simon Difford 1 year ago

You can't add photos to this page, but you can click "Add your version" (under the photo at the top) to create a page with your own version and photograph of this cocktail.