Tessa .

I was a bit nervous about this one. Just looked like an awful lot of lemon juice, and you could probably get away with a scant 3/4 oz or heavy 2/3 oz if you wanted to tone down the lemon just a hair. Wouldn’t tinker with it too terribly much though. It really is beautifully balanced and minimalism done right.

Only had Bacardi Carta Blanca in the house, but this sounded so good that I wanted to give it a whirl anyway. And it’s delicious! With the Carta Blanca substitution, the Kahlúa becomes very front and center, but the other flavors aren’t totally lost. I’ll make the modified version again, but with 1/4 oz. Kahlúa instead of 1/2 oz.

I’m not usually wowed by gimlets which can skew kind of lime popsicle-flavored for my taste, but this is delicious. I might add a touch more gin the next time I make it. I’m loving the elderflower liqueur and lime, but they’re totally overpowering the gin for me. (Admittedly, I didn’t have Rutte Dry Gin & subbed in Boodles. Like a heathen.)

Far better balanced that the Caribeño which has the same ingredients in drastically different proportions. Very rum forward, but I would make again it when I was in the mood for something this boozy.