Gimlet

History

During the 17th century, English sailors came to understand that consumption of citrus fruit helped prevent scurvy, one of the most common illnesses aboard ships. Despite this, and John Woodall (1570-1643), an English military surgeon with the British East India Company, recommending that citrus fruit be part of sailors' rations, their use did not become commonplace.

In 1747, James Lind, a Scottish surgeon, conducted clinical experiments that showed citrus had an antiscorbutic effect. However, he believed scurvy had multiple causes, particularly ill-digested and putrefying food, bad water, overwork and damp living conditions; thus, he didn't advocate citrus as a single remedy.

Experience showed Naval officers and surgeons that citrus juice prevented scurvy, eventually leading Rear Admiral Alan Gardner to insist a daily ration of lemon juice be issued on board the Suffolk during a 23-week, non-stop voyage to India in 1794. As a result, there was no serious outbreak of scurvy. This voyage and Lind's earlier findings convinced the Admiralty to recommend lemon juice be issued routinely to the whole fleet. However, it was only after 1800 that the supply of fruit allowed this.

Once the benefits of drinking citrus juice became more widely known, British sailors consumed so much of the stuff, particularly lime juice, often mixed with their daily ration of rum and water ('grog'), that they became affectionately known as 'Limeys'.

We now understand that a Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy and that citrus fruit contains the vitamin that helps ward off the condition.

The 1867 Merchant Shipping Act made it mandatory for all British ships to carry rations of lime juice for the crew. The fruit juice was preserved by adding 15% rum, but in 1867, Lauchlin Rose, a shipyard owner in Leith, Scotland, patented a process for preserving fruit juice with sugar rather than alcohol. To give his product wider appeal, he packaged the mixture in an attractive bottle and named it 'Rose's Lime Cordial'.

Legend has it that while the ratings drank rum, their officers drank gin, so they naturally mixed Rose's lime cordial with gin to make Gimlets. Hence, it is said that the creation of the Gimlet is the result of circumstance rather than clever mixing of ingredients, and to be honest – that's how it tastes if you try an un-chilled (they had no ice) 50-50 Gimlet. However, stirred over ice and mixed to more balanced proportions, the result is divine.

Story behind the name
A 'gimlet' was a small tool used to tap the barrels of spirits carried on British Navy ships, which may be the origin of the cocktail's name. Another story cites a naval doctor, Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette (1857-1943), who is said to have mixed gin with lime 'to help the medicine go down'. Although credible, it is not substantiated in his obituary in The Times (6th October 1943), nor his entry in Who Was Who (1941-1950), and I guess pretty much every doctor in the Navy spurted a similar mantra at the time.

Vintage Gimlet recipes & references
Harry MacElhone's 1923 Harry of Ciro's ABC Of Mixing Cocktails

99. Gimlet.
½ Coates' Plymouth Gin,
½ Rose's Lime Juice Cordial.
Stir, and serve in same glass. Can be iced if desired.
A very popular beverage in the Navy.

Harry MacElhone, 1923

Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book lists both a "Gimlet Cocktail" and a "Gimblet Cocktail".

GIMBLET COCKTAIL.
¼ Lime Juice.
¾ Dry gin.
Shake well and strain into medium size glass; fill up with soda water.

GIMLET COCKTAIL.
½ Burrough's Plymouth Gin.
½ Roses Lime Cordial.
Stir, and serve in same glass. Can be iced if desired

Harry Craddock, 1930

David A. Embury's 1948 The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks
In the "Roll Your Own" section (page 131) , David A. Embury comments

...the Gimlet is a Gin Rickey and is made with sugar, lime juice, gin, and carbonated water. It is served in a Delmonico or Sour glass. It is also served as a cocktail, omitting the carbonated water.

David A. Embury, 1948

Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel The Long Goodbye

The bartender set the drink in front of me. With the lime juice it has a sort of pale greenish yellowish misty look. I tasted it. It was both sweet and sharp at the same time. The woman in black watched me. Then she lifted her own glass towards me. We both drank. Then I knew hers was the same drink.

Raymond Chandler, 1953