Gin Daisy

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Cocktail History

The Gin Daisy is a classic cocktail that was created in the 1870s by Jerry Thomas. It’s traditionally made with gin, orange liqueur, lemon, and soda water, but several more modern variations of the recipe now exist, including one published in The Essential Cocktail Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Drinks that swaps out the classic triple sec for grenadine and simple syrup. This version sticks to the original’s list of ingredients, which has since become one of six basic cocktail templates made with a base spirit, liqueur, and citrus juice.

Cocktail Ingredients

To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Gin: This is a spirit made by redistilling a neutral spirit with juniper berries and other botanicals to develop a distinctive, aromatic flavor.

Soda Water: This is a carbonated beverage made with water and dissolved carbon dioxide gas, which gives it a fizzy, neutral flavor.

Triple Sec: This is a liqueur made with bitter orange peels, distilled alcohol, water, and sugar, which are blended and infused to develop a sweet, bright citrus flavor.

Lemon Juice: This is the liquid extracted from the flesh of ripe lemons that has a sweet, tangy flavor and light yellow color.

Lemon Wedge: This is a slice of lemon that has been cut into a wedge shape.

Bartending Tools

To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following bar tools:

Jigger: This is used to measure and pour ingredients. I used the Japanese jigger from the A Bar Above 14-Piece Silver Bar Set.

Boston Shaker: This is used to shake ingredients. I used the Boston shaker from the A Bar Above 14-Piece Silver Bar Set.

Hawthorne Strainer: This is used to strain out ice and solid ingredients after the cocktail is shaken. I used the A Bar Above Hawthorne Strainer.

Bar Spoon: This is used to stir ingredients. I used the Barfly Stainless Steel Teardrop Bar Spoon.

Paring Knife: This is used to cut ingredients. I used the OXO Good Grips 3.5 Inch Paring Knife.

Juicer: This is used to juice citrus. I used the ALEEHAI Manual Fruit Juicer.

Tasting Notes

This cocktail has the following flavor profile:

• Appearance: Clear or faint yellow color

• Aroma: Citrus-dominant with strong lemon and gin notes

• Taste: Zesty tart lemon flavor with sweet orange and herbal juniper

• Finish: Effervescent texture with fading gin botanicals

Kendall’s Take: “Although many modern drinks use a similar formula now that I know what this one is, I had never heard of the Gin Daisy before this tasting and think it’s still relatively unknown. My first thought a couple of sips in was that this would be the perfect refreshing template for gin tastings, especially for someone like me who doesn’t like the bitterness of tonic in the usual go-to cocktail for tastings, the Gin & Tonic. Swapping tonic water out for soda water allows whatever gin you’re using to really shine against the citrus notes. The drink is quite gin-forward, so you probably won’t be a fan if you don’t enjoy the botanical spirit, but as someone who does, I liked this a lot.”

Recipe

This cocktail recipe was adapted from The Essential Cocktail Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Drinks by the editors of PUNCH and Megan Krigbaum.