Gin Smash
Gin, lemon, sugar and mint muddled and served over cracked ice. The nineteenth-century smash with gin — a julep with citrus, shorter and sharper, and one of the best summer gin drinks.
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.
Put the lemon wedges and simple syrup in a shaker and muddle to release the juice and peel oil.
Add the mint leaves and press gently, then add the gin.
Fill with ice and shake for 10 seconds.
Strain over cracked ice in a rocks glass and garnish with a slapped mint sprig.
A thoughtful finish
- Muddle the lemon hard and the mint gently.
- Straining out the spent lemon and mint keeps the drink clean; some bars dump it all in.
- Cracked or crushed ice; it is a julep's cousin.
Common mistakes
- Grinding the mint to bits.
- Lemon juice instead of wedges, which loses the peel oil.
- Serving it up; it wants ice.
A few good questions.
What does a Gin Smash taste like?
Bright lemon, fresh mint and gin over ice — a shorter, sharper julep.
How is it different from a Southside?
The Southside is shaken and strained up; a smash is muddled with lemon wedges and served over ice.
Is it the same as a Whiskey Smash?
Same build with gin instead of bourbon.
Can I add soda?
A splash makes it longer; it is then close to a mint Collins.
Variations
- Whiskey Smash — Bourbon, lemon, sugar and mint.
- Southside — Gin, lime, sugar and mint, shaken up.
- Gin Julep — Gin, mint and sugar over crushed ice.
- Mojito — Rum, lime, sugar, mint and soda.
Where it comes from
c. 1850s · United States
The smash is a mid-nineteenth-century American drink, a ‘julep on a small plan’ in Jerry Thomas’s words — spirit, sugar, mint and ice in a short glass — and by the 1880s bartenders were adding a piece of lemon to it, which is the modern smash: spirit, citrus, sugar and mint muddled together. Gin was one of the standard smash spirits along with brandy and whiskey. Dale DeGroff’s Whiskey Smash of the 1990s brought the form back, and the Gin Smash followed in every bar that had mint: it is a Southside served over ice with the lemon wedges muddled in, and it suits a London dry as well as anything.
Sources
- Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks, 1862 (book)
- Dale DeGroff, The Craft of the Cocktail, 2002 (book)
- Difford's Guide, Gin Smash, 2010 (reference)
Strength. About 1.47 US standard drinks at an estimated 21.3% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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