San Luis Obispo’s Tangerine Gimlet
The Tangerine Gimlet is perfect for weddings held from winter to early summer. It’s a bracing style of drink, which tracks with the traditional version of a Gimlet. London dry gin is the canvas, and the modifiers orbit the bitter orange vs. chocolate relationship. This drink is really made or broken by the tangerine syrup. When tangerines are in season, this is pure magic.
Ingredients
- 1½ ounces London dry gin
- 1 ounce lime juice
- ¾ ounce tangerine syrup
- ¼ ounce Campari
- ¼ ounce mezcal
- 1 dash chocolate bitters
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice. Shake vigorously for 8–12 seconds, then strain into an Old Fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a fresh citrus half-wheel and/or an edible flower (to contrast with the color).
TO MAKE IT FOR A CROWD
- Scale up all elements of the recipe, except for the bitters. Keep bitters at a 50% level when scaling up (example: a 10x volume increase for all ingredients correlates to a 5x increase in bitters). Add 15% pure cold water. Add more to taste if needed, with the idea being that the drink is slightly “hot” (needing to rest over ice). Dry-shake and keep refrigerated until service. During service, dry-shake (no additional dilution needed) and pour into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a fresh citrus half-wheel and/or an edible flower (to contrast with the color).
TANGERINE SYRUP
- Combine 1 part fresh-squeezed, strained tangerine juice with 1 part organic sugar. Emulsify or blend, then refrigerate. The syrup is good for 2 weeks.
Notes
Photo: Brian Sikich
