A French Gimlet is a delightfully floral riff on the classic gimlet cocktail. It's both elegant and quite easy to shake up.
This drink has a lot of herbaceous and floral notes, the former from the gin and the latter from both the gin and elderflower liqueur. It's a light and refreshing sip. Strain it into a coupe or Nick and Nora glass for some extra added fanciness.
I have other gimlet recipes on this site, too. Check out my Strawberry Cucumber Gimlet, for example.
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🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It's light and floral. Elderflower liqueur gives great floral flavor to this drink.
- It's easy to make. All you need to do is a little shaking with a cocktail shaker before straining this drink into a fancy glass.
- You'll feel elegant while drinking it. Maybe it's the glassware, but I think you'll feel pretty dang elegant while sipping on one of these.
💭 What is a gimlet?
A gimlet is a cocktail that is historically made up of gin and lime cordial (i.e., sweetened lime juice). It can also be made with lime juice and simple syrup, instead of the cordial.
There are lots of delicious variations on the original recipe, including the French Gimlet.
💭 What is a French Gimlet?
A French Gimlet is a riff on the original gimlet cocktail. It keeps the gin and lime juice, but adds sweet, floral elderflower liqueur to the mix.
It's very similar to a French Blonde Cocktail, which also uses grapefruit juice and Lilet Blanc.
📝 Ingredients
- Lime juice: Freshly squeezed, please.
- Elderflower liqueur: Elderflower liqueur is made from the flowers of the elderberry plant. It's light, sweet, and floral in taste. St. Germain is the most popular and widely-known brand. There are other brands; I've been using St. Elder.
- Gin: Use whatever gin that you prefer. I've been on a Bar Hill kick of late.
- Garnish: I like to garnish my French Gimlet with a bit of lime wheel. Just float it on the top of the cocktail.
👩🏻🍳 How to make a French Gimlet
Start by adding your lime juice, elderflower liqueur, and gin to a cocktail shaker, along with some ice. I tend use a single large cube instead of a bunch of smaller ice cubes. This allows the drink to get sufficiently cold without diluting it unnecessarily.
Cap the shaker and shake until very cold, or about 10 seconds.
Strain the drink into a coupe glass (or a Nick and Nora glass, if you prefer those instead). Float a thin lime wheel on top of the drink, if you're feeling fancy. And I know that you are.
🔗 Other gimlet recipes
There's a wide world of gimlets out there. I have a few others on this blog, which I've shared below, along with some links to recipes from other fantastic bloggers.
- Pear-Sage Gimlet from Burrata and Bubbles
- Thai Basil Gimlet from Nerds with Knives
- Raspberry Gimlet from Sidewalk Shoes
❓ FAQs/Tips and tricks
Sure! Just scale the ingredients up proportional to the number of drinks that you want to make.
If you want to adhere strictly to the original recipe, then yes. But you could also easily sub in vodka for the gin. You could also sub in light rum for the gin to make an interesting twist on the classic daiquiri.
In short, use whatever gin you like! I will say that the better your quality of gin, the better your cocktail will be.
Elder flower liqueur is a liqueur that's made from the flowers of the elderberry plant. It's sweet and floral in flavor. St. Germain is the most popular brand, but St. Elder is another option.
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✨ Recipe
French Gimlet
Equipment
- Cocktail jigger
- Boston shaker
- Hawthorne strainer
- Nick and Nora glasses
Ingredients
- 0.5 ounce lime juice freshly squeezed
- 1.5 ounces elderflower liqueur
- 2 ounces gin
- lime wheel for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Add the lime juice, elderflower liqueur, and gin to a cocktail shaker. Add ice.
- Cap the shaker and shake until very cold, about 10 seconds.
- Strain the drink into a coupe glass or Nick and Nora glass.
- Garnish with a lime wheel, if desired.
Notes
- St. Germain is the best known brand of elderflower liqueur, but isn't the only option
Disclaimer: Nutritional information is a generated estimate and is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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