Mar 28

Mar 28 Cocktails: Kabosu + Cucumber Gimlet

Before shelter in place orders were issued, I went to a small house gathering in Sag Harbor, where our host—an up and coming young chef—was making gin gimlets. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a gimlet but there was a short period of time in my early 20s when the gimlet was my go to cocktail. Having a well made gimlet brought back some fond memories. The gimlet is traditionally made up of two parts gin and one part lime juice. There are variations to this recipe but it has a really citrus forward tart taste that I enjoy.

In my quest to give you a new recipe every day during quarantine, I saw that we needed some more variety in our cocktail recipes section. Taking the gin gimlet as my inspiration, I was thinking of ways to give it a little Japanese twist while still respecting the gimlet’s traditional flavor profile. Even though I still do some shopping, like most of us, I’m really trying to stick with using what we have on hand. I opened my refrigerator and immediately my eyes went to a small bottle of kabosu juice and a fresh cucumber. I knew I had the right ingredients to make a killer gimlet with a new Japanese inspired twist. The Kabosu + Cucumber Gimlet was born. Many of you may not be familiar with kabosu. It is a citrus fruit that is popular in Japan. In Japanese recipes it is often used in fish and soup dishes. It is related to the more widely familiar/popular, yuzu fruit. I think that bottled kabosu also has an almost melon like quality and flavor to it that just adds an exciting layer to this cocktail.

The recipe for the Kabosu + Cucumber Gimlet is below and for instructions just click to watch the video. If you prefer vodka to gin—or if it’s what you happen to have on hand—then by all means you can substitute. When you substitute gin, just keep in mind that gin does have some floral notes that you’ll miss if you use vodka instead. This gimlet is very tart so I do add some simple syrup. You can use simple syrup (just boil equal parts water to white sugar to dissolve, and cool) or agave syrup.