RECIPE: Gin Rickey Cocktail
 Gin Rickey. Photo courtesy Tanqueray. |
First: What is a rickey?
It’s a highball—a fizzy whiskey drink mixed with club soda or ginger ale and served with ice in a tall glass. A rickey is made from gin or bourbon, fresh lime juice, carbonated water and ice. Sometimes sugar is added, largely to satisfy the sweet-seeking American palate. It’s not part of the original recipe. Tell the bartender not to put any in yours. The rickey was created with bourbon in the 1880s, at Shoomaker’s bar in Washington, D.C. The story handed down is that it was a collaboration between bartender George A. Williamson and a good customer, Democratic lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey. In the bar for his morning glass of bourbon and Apollinaris sparkling mineral water, with lump ice, history was changed when one day, half a lime was squeezed into, then dropped into, the glass. The guess is that the lime was the bartender’s twist. Colonel Rickey may have preferred bourbon, but the cocktail became a worldwide sensation a decade later when gin was substituted to create the Gin Rickey (check out the different types of gin below. There are also virgin rickeys, soda fountain drinks made with lime syrup and soda water; a raspberry-lime rickey adds raspberry syrup. |
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The tall iced drink has always been a popular summer cocktail, and the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild established July as Rickey Month. Ingredients |
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Preparation
1. ADD gin and fresh lime juice to an ice-filled collins glass. Stir. 2. ADD soda water, stir gently. Garnish with a lime wedge and serve. There are four different types of gin: |
 Gin rickey: lots of lime juice makes it cloudy. Photo courtesy Liquor.com. |
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Get a bottle of each of the different types of gin and have a comparative tasting: first straight and then in the two most famous gin cocktails, Gin Rickey and Gin & Tonic. If you want to add Sloe Gin, the best-known drink is the Sloe Gin Fizz. |
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