Ah, the gimlet, one of my favorite cocktails. I’m sure I mentioned that in my last gimlet post, but that was way back in 2018. Back then, I tried a Blueberry Basil Vodka Gimlet recipe that was a little outside of my comfort zone. It turned out to be amazingly good, so I didn’t hesitate to add this Honey Sage Gimlet recipe to my blog. The addition of honey to a gimlet is also a bit out of my comfort zone, but sometimes good things arrive in unusual packages. Let’s find out if this recipe is as good as the last.
This gimlet recipe is a version that I love! It uses fresh lime juice sweetened with a bit of honey and sage to give it a delicious balance. It is simple and refreshing in the way that good summer cocktails are.
The Ingredients
Cocktail recipes can be as simple as two ingredients or waaay more complicated. This one was closer to the simple side with five ingredients, so it wasn’t very intimidating.
I had a bottle of St. George Gin leftover from the Elderflower Spanish Gin and Tonics I made a while back. It was a nice, dry gin that I enjoyed, so I’m using it again for this recipe.
And we always keep seltzer around, and raw honey for our tea. I even found a couple of limes lying around. That left me to shop for the fresh sage leaves, which were readily available at my usual grocery store. It was a short shopping trip.
The Process
In addition to having only a few ingredients, this cocktail was easy to make and even had a simple garnish. I have to say I like that when I’m the bartender. It’s not an area I’m particularly confident in, believe it or not.
Anyhoo, mixing up my Honey Sage Gimlet was about as easy as I thought it would be. I got out my ice cube trays, stemless wine glasses, and a few other tools and got started. The flat side of a meat mallet was ideal for bruising the sage leaves, and my measuring glass came in handy for the gin. Don’t have these? No worries! You can use the back of a spoon to bruise the sage, and a tablespoon to measure the gin (2 ounces = 4 tablespoons).
The glasses I used hold a lot, so I loaded them up with ice cubes. That may not have been the best idea since the honey settled to the bottom of the glass. I had to carefully maneuver a thin bar spoon past the ice so I could stir the honey. As you can see, it didn’t completely dissolve, but I still ended up with a very enjoyable cocktail in 4 minutes from start to finish.
The next day, I tried the second method, shaking my Honey Sage Gimlet. It took me 5 minutes to make and garnish my cocktail this way. The honey seemed to dissolve into the gin and lime juice, and I didn’t have clumps of it in the bottom of my glass. However, I found a clump of honey and sage leaves at the bottom of my cocktail shaker when I emptied it. That explained why this version had more of a lime flavor and less (almost no) sage flavor. It was still good, but I preferred the stirred version.
