Breakfast Gimlet
Gin, fresh lime and a spoon of orange marmalade, shaken hard. The Breakfast Martini's idea on a Gimlet — bitter orange peel against sharp lime, and a brunch gin drink with a backbone.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Add the marmalade and lime juice to a shaker and stir until the marmalade loosens.
Add the gin and syrup (if using), fill with ice and shake very hard for 15 seconds to dissolve the preserve.
Double strain into a chilled coupe.
Express an orange twist over the top.
A thoughtful finish
- Loosen the marmalade in the lime juice before shaking.
- Shake hard and double strain; the peel wants to stay in the shaker.
- A bitter Seville marmalade is the point; a sweet orange jam is flat.
Common mistakes
- A sweet, pulpy jam.
- Under-shaking, which leaves the marmalade in lumps.
- Skipping the double strain.
A few good questions.
What does a Breakfast Gimlet taste like?
Gin and sharp lime with bitter orange peel and a little sweetness — a Gimlet with marmalade's edge.
Is it a Breakfast Martini?
A cousin: the Breakfast Martini has Cointreau and lemon; this has lime and no liqueur.
Which marmalade?
A thick-cut Seville — Frank Cooper's, Tiptree, Wilkin & Sons.
Can I add Cointreau?
A quarter-ounce makes it closer to the Breakfast Martini.
Variations
- Breakfast Martini — Gin, Cointreau, lemon and marmalade.
- Gimlet — Gin and lime.
- Grapefruit Gimlet — Gin, grapefruit, lime and sugar.
- Bee's Knees — Gin, lemon and honey.
Where it comes from
c. 2010s · London
Salvatore Calabrese’s Breakfast Martini of 1996 — gin, Cointreau, lemon and a spoon of orange marmalade — taught bars that marmalade is a cocktail ingredient, and the Breakfast Gimlet is its lime-and-no-liqueur cousin from the 2010s: gin with fresh lime and a barspoon or two of marmalade, shaken hard so the preserve dissolves and its peel disperses. The marmalade does the sweetening and adds bitter orange peel; the lime keeps it sharp. It appears on London brunch menus and in Difford’s, and it is a good way to use a good marmalade. A thick-cut Seville marmalade gives the most bitterness; a fine-cut one dissolves more easily.
Sources
- Difford's Guide, Breakfast Gimlet, 2015 (reference)
- Salvatore Calabrese, Classic Cocktails, 1997 (book)
- Liquor.com, Marmalade Cocktails, 2020 (reference)
Strength. About 1.47 US standard drinks at an estimated 21.1% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
A keeper?
Save this drink for your next cocktail hour.
Saved in this browser.The next great drink
might already be on your shelf.
Choose your bottles and mixers. Discover what you can make.
Your next sip.
More Gin drinks ↗
20th Century
Gin, Lillet, white crème de cacao and lemon. A 1937 drink named for a luxury train, and the proof that chocolate and…
Aviation
Gin, maraschino, lemon and a whisper of violet — a pre-Prohibition sour that spent fifty years incomplete because one ingredient vanished.
Bees Knees
Gin, lemon and honey. A Prohibition-era sour that was invented to hide bad gin and turns out to be the best thing…