Eastside Cocktail

The Eastside Cocktail is delicious, super refreshing and easy to make! With cucumber, lime, mint and gin, it's a great combination to sip on a hot afternoon. This drink is a riff on a Southside, with just the cucumber added to make it even more refreshing.

This drink was developed in 2004 by bartender George Delgado at Libation in New York City. Although it was originally served as a highball with ice and seltzer, it's now often served up, without ice.

Just as the Southside can be considered a riff on the Gimlet, this drink adds on to the formula by adding fresh cucumber. The addition of the cucumber is inspired, as the bright cucumber flavor goes perfectly with the lime and mint.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you'll need to have on hand to make this simple and fresh cocktail.

• Gin - I used Hendrick's Gin in this cocktail, which is a great fit since it already has some cucumber flavors in it. A London dry gin would also work great.
• Lime juice - preferably freshly squeezed
• Simple syrup - see my Simple Syrup recipe for how to make your own (it's so easy!)
• Fresh mint
• Fresh cucumber

Substitutions

This is a pretty simple recipe, so substituting anything will change the taste a lot. You can substitute the lime juice with lemon juice, which will make the drink a tiny bit less sour, but still delicious.

If you don't have any simple syrup, you can substitute in maple syrup. Or, just dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar into ¾ ounce of water, which will make a 1:1 simple syrup. (See my simple syrup post for more info on different ways to make it at home.)

Variations

Looking for different ways to spice up this drink? Try these variations:

• Spicy Eastside - muddle 2 to 3 slices of fresh jalapeño along with the cucumber for a spicy and peppery kick.
• Basil Eastside - instead of fresh mint, try switching in fresh basil leaves. They have a similar flavor profile and are delicious for a new take on this drink.
• Eastside Highball - instead of serving this drink up (without ice in a stemmed glass), serve it in a tall highball glass filled with ice, and top it off with seltzer. This is the way the drink was originally developed, and it's really delicious this way!
• Eastside Spritz - make the drink as per the recipe, but reduce the gin by half. Add it to a spritz glass filled with ice and top with 3 ounces of Prosecco. A delicious and bubbly option!

Remember, if you don't have a cucumber on hand, just make it a Southside!

Equipment

To make this drink, you'll need a cocktail shaker and strainer, a jigger or small measuring cup, and a muddler. If you're using fresh citrus, you'll also want to have a citrus juicer along with a knife and cutting board.

For the garnish in the photos, use a vegetable peeler to slice a long strip of the cucumber. Then, thread it onto a cocktail pick. Be careful not to nick your finger -- press it downward into a cutting board as you get close to the end of the strip.

The serving glass I used is a Nick and Nora cocktail glass. Look for a glass capacity of about 5 ounces, since the muddled cucumber will add a little more liquid and be too much for a 4 ounce glass.

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Instructions

To make this drink, start out by making the garnish. Use a vegetable peeler to cut a long strip of cucumber, and thread it onto a cocktail pick. (It's a little easier to use the portion of cucumber where there are no seeds, as the pick will have a harder time holding the seeded section in place).

Set the garnish aside and cut some slices of your cucumber. Add them along with the lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Muddle well, until the cucumber is mashed up.

Then, add the mint leaves to the shaker and muddle again, but more gently this time. (If you over-muddle the mint, it can give the drink an unpleasant bitterness.) You could also skip the mint muddling and just clap it between your hands instead.

After that, add the simple syrup and gin to the cocktail shaker.

Fill the shaker with ice and shake about 15-20 times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Top tip

You can amp up the flavor of this drink by flavoring your simple syrup. Try a mint syrup by making your own simple syrup and letting the mint steep in the hot syrup while it cools. This is the same method as my Sage Syrup recipe.