A Southside Cocktail combines lemons, sugar, mint and gin. The recipe I found in Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology calls for four lemon wedges muddled with the other ingredients before shaking. In muddling full wedges, you get a lot of peel which certainly enhanced the sharp tartness of the resulting beverage. I enjoyed the drink quite a lot. It's certainly sour - and pulpy - but the sugar and mint bring enough to take the edge off.
Worth noting, other recipes I've seen use limes instead of lemons.
The drink's origins are unclear. Is it the South Side of Chicago or the South Side Sportsmen's Club in Great River, New York? The most colorful theory supports the former, suggesting it may have been a favorite of gangster Al Capone's.
I have a lot of mint these days (this season), but seldom use it in drinks except occasionally in ice tea and to make mint jelly for lamb..
ReplyDeleteWe have loads of mint in our yard so it's always good to have an excuse to use it. It plays a key role in this drink - keeps the lemon from completely overpowering. As I've no doubt written before, it's not easy to compete with citrus - a dependable flavor heavyweight.
DeleteThis sounds good and, with the mint, refreshing plus, I like gin
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed it - more than I was expecting, in fact.
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