Pimm's #1

[Joerg.Meyer]

Just looked it up, Pimms Winter No. 1 is the name.  Looked festive, but I passed.

Sean

←

No . it is called Pimms Winter No.3 - it made with Brandy as a base (No. 1 is with Gin)

In the past it was just No. 3 ("Winter" is just new marketing stuff)

[Carlovski]

I'm a fan. But I'm even more of a fan of the fruit cup made by Plymouth Gin (Also my Gin of choice...) A more sensible 30% abv as well.

But no cucumber please. Mint is essential though.

[DemeraraDrinker]

I'm a huge fan, but only with club sode (for the Pimm's Cup). Sprite or Ginger Ale are too sweet for me. And if you go to the Napoleon House in New Orleans, they'll serve you their "famous" Pimm's Cup with lemonade (not homemade lemonade)!! I go there and just specify club soda.

Its getting to the time of year when Pimm's Cups start to taste really good (at least in the Northern Hemisphere).

[DemeraraDrinker]

Oh, forgot to say...I really wonder what all the other Pimm's formulas were like. The rye, whiskey, brandy based formulas. Has anyone ever had a Pimm's formula other than the current preponderant one?

[ThinkingBartender]

I get the impression that many of you are mixing your Pimms with citrusy flavours, is this how it is for many people?

[cdh]

Pimms benefits from citrus oils, but the more important flavor is the cucumber, at least as far as I'm concerned. The citrus juice is unimportant.

Years ago, here on eG, Jack Lang posted a recipe for ersatz Pimms that consisted of gin, sweet vermouth and orange liqueur, and it makes a reasonable facsimile of Pimms... That provides an interesting way to look at the Pimms flavor profile. I'll see if I can find that post and link to it.

ETA: Found it: Here it is: ersatz Pimm's recipe.

The challenge in that recipe is figuring out which gin, which vermouth and which orange liqueur make the best combination. I lean towards Cinzano for the vermouth.

Edited May 20, 2007 by cdh (log)

[angusw]

Of course Plymouth Fruit Cup was intended to be similar and is a mix of Cherry Heering, Plymouth and Punt e Mes as far as I remember.

aw

[Mayur]

Oh, forgot to say...I really wonder what all the other Pimm's formulas were like.  The rye, whiskey, brandy based formulas.  Has anyone ever had a Pimm's formula other than the current preponderant one?

←

I have some No.3 (brandy) and No.6 (vodka) in the liquor cabinet right now. Suffice to say the vodka makes a roughly similar cup that requires a bit more citrus or more intense ginger to balance properly; the brandy is actually heavily brandy-ish and mixes best in brandy-type connotations; it makes a perfectly decent sidecar variation when done half and half with cognac, or an excellent apple-y winter cocktail mixed with some Laird's bonded, a slug of cider, and a bit of pomegranate molasses or lemon juice for sourness. Good stuff, but it is aptly named "winter" for a reason; too heavy for a standard Pimm's cup.

[cdh]

I dare say that a skilled bartender with time on their hands could concoct better. But where would we find such a person. I am back in London on the 27th of May, so I will give it a go.

Watching this space anxiously for you to one-up the Pimms recipe with something much better... It's getting to be summer lawn party time and a new option would be much fun.

[notahumanissue]

Well, I know it's damn near blasphemy for some here, but I've been getting some great feedback serving a pimms cup with blueberry purée, fresh lemonade -- british style -- and the smallest little dash of a ginger-lemongrass concentrated syrup. I'm sure you can guess at the obvious proportions... For garnish, I rest on top of the ice a cucumber wheel flagging a small blueberry. Adorable.

edited to add cute garnish info

Edited May 26, 2007 by notahumanissue (log)

[TarteTatin]

I love Pimm's Cups. With seltzer, nothing too sweet.

I love Lillet, Dubonnet, Pastis, Campari.

All are wonderful, summer time sipping libations.

Depends what I'm in the mood for!

[cdh]

I dare say that a skilled bartender with time on their hands could concoct better. But where would we find such a person. I am back in London on the 27th of May, so I will give it a go.

Watching this space anxiously for you to one-up the Pimms recipe with something much better... It's getting to be summer lawn party time and a new option would be much fun.

←

Any brilliant progress to report on the Pimms replacement yet?

[bostonapothecary]

I dare say that a skilled bartender with time on their hands could concoct better. But where would we find such a person. I am back in London on the 27th of May, so I will give it a go.

Watching this space anxiously for you to one-up the Pimms recipe with something much better... It's getting to be summer lawn party time and a new option would be much fun.

←

Any brilliant progress to report on the Pimms replacement yet?

←

does pimms have any flaws? what do you crave that it doesn't have? or do you just want something homemade?

we got a bunch of free pango rum that we didn't know what to do with. the flaw to us was the low alcohol and the too high sugar content....so we fixed it.... i just calculated how much overproof rum to add to nurse it back to health bringing the proof of to 80 and cutting the brix by dillution. our cocktails had lime juice but to add more life to the depressed fruit you could even add a little citric acid but be sure to let everything integrate....

[cdh]

does pimms have any flaws? what do you crave that it doesn't have? or do you just want something homemade?

←

I like Pimms and don't think of it as flawed at all. ThinkingBartender thinks it is objectionable, and easily replaced by something better that he could concoct given a little free time. I'm curious about what that might be. Any new member of the Pimms family of drinks would be welcome, so I'm interested in hearing about replacements and substitutions that work.

[bostonapothecary]

does pimms have any flaws? what do you crave that it doesn't have? or do you just want something homemade?

←

I like Pimms and don't think of it as flawed at all. ThinkingBartender thinks it is objectionable, and easily replaced by something better that he could concoct given a little free time. I'm curious about what that might be. Any new member of the Pimms family of drinks would be welcome, so I'm interested in hearing about replacements and substitutions that work.

←

so we need a dominant fruit note to replace the orange.... vermouth like character.... and an expressive fortifying liquor.... and a nice legend to sell it all....

i vote for a smokey cachaca, sour cherries for the fruit, and some sort of vermouth to sex it up....

i've been into smoked mozzarella, and double smoked bacon with amador county zins lately....

i've also been making this mojitoeque kind of thing with a cachaca, a wisper of creole shrub, lime blah blah blah...... sieve it all and tie the smokeness of the chachaca with the subtle orange with a nice flamed and burnt orange twist....

smoke and contrasting fruit is very sexy.

does overproof cachaca exist?

[ermintrude]

Interesting to note that people are now adding Gin to Pimms, many years ago it used to be 40% alcohol then they drooped it to it's current level (I believe because of the UK tax laws), to get an old style Pimms you need to add a slug of Gin or Vodka.

Edited June 5, 2007 by ermintrude (log)

[eje]

This might be an odd question:

I've noticed a real lack of Pimm's Cup recipes in pretty much any 19th or early 20th Century Cocktail Book I've read, or even much mention of Pimm's.

Sure there are recipes for "Cups" but recipes for Pimm's Cups or other cocktails with Pimm's are very absent, considering the variety of spirituous ingredients called for in these books.

I even looked through the UK Bartender's Guild "Approved Cocktails" circa the mid 1930s, when Harry Craddock was president, figuring Pimm's would have to be mentioned.

But the only mention is in the Glossary, where it says, "Pimm's No. 1 Cup.--This is claimed by the manufacturers to be the original Gin Sling."

How creditable are its claims as a historic beverage, or are we looking at another case of manufactured history?

Edited June 14, 2011 by eje (log)

[evo-lution]

are we looking at another case of manufactured history?

Definitely not, old advertisments have it laying claim to being the first bottled cocktail (as it was used to aid digestion), hence the Gin Sling reference.

Edited June 15, 2011 by evo-lution (log)

[eje]

Definitely not, old advertisments have it laying claim to being the first bottled cocktail (as it was used to aid digestion), hence the Gin Sling reference.

Like I said, I just find it odd it doesn't appear in any prohibition era or pre-prohibition cocktail books I've ever seen.

You've seen ads for it or recipes with it prior to its appearance in the UKBG Approved Cocktails Glossary?

[evo-lution]

Like I said, I just find it odd it doesn't appear in any prohibition era or pre-prohibition cocktail books I've ever seen.

That may well be because it was regarded as a bottled cocktail/Gin Sling which originally was a drink in its own right (the No. 1 Cup).

[eje]

That may be, but being a bottled aperitif or digestiv didn't stop people from using just about anything they could lay their hands on in drinkd, and there are certainly bunches of modern drinks that use Pimm's No 1 as an ingredient. I find it hard to believe that our predecessors were any less inventive.

Though, my other thought was the Pimm's Cup as a beverage was just too, uh, I dunno, well known, for anyone to bother writing it down.

Kind of like writing down a Gin & Tonic.

Of course that didn't stop them from writing down The Highball or Gin & It.

Maybe I just haven't read enough English drinks manuals.

[evo-lution]

That may be, but being a bottled aperitif or digestiv didn't stop people from using just about anything they could lay their hands on in drinkd.

Not sure what you mean by the bolded bit?

As I understand it the drink (No. 1 Cup) was originally made fresh by James Pimm (consisting of gin, spices, liqueur, that sort of thing) and the bottled version came about due to demand, thus giving you one of the first bottled cocktails (just add water, ice and fruit).

For that reason I can understand why no-one was adding what was essentially a bottled cocktail (an 1800s RTD if you must) to another drink.

As for modern use many don't know what Pimm's actually is. "It's, erm, Pimm's."

Edited June 15, 2011 by evo-lution (log)

[brinza]

I see both Erik's and Adam's points here. Erik is saying that basically, anything in a bottle has always been fair game as a cocktail ingredient, so why doesn't Pimm's show up in old recipes? OTOH, as bottled cocktail already, perhaps it was looked upon only as an end product--just one example of a variety of Cup or Sling. It would be like using one of today's RTD products like, say, Cuervo Margarita as a cocktail ingredient. I can't imagine anyone doing that. But then again, if Pimm's really was once upon a time bottled at 40% alcohol, that basically demands it be mixed with something, and was therefore not really all that RTD, as it sort of is now.

I have a feeling I'll be drinking me some Pimm's this weekend . . .

[evo-lution]

if Pimm's really was once upon a time bottled at 40% alcohol

Huh?

Bottled Pimm's gave you all you need to make a No. 1 Cup which I guess is the reason it wasn't used widely in other drinks. It wouldn't have been looked at as an ingredients in its own right (such as Sweet Vermouth) but as a pre-mix you'd use to make your own No. 1 Cup (commonly referred to nowadays as a Pimm's Cup).

Even nowadays Pimm's is rarely used in anything but a Pimm's Cup or one of its variants (speaking from a UK perspective).

[brinza]

if Pimm's really was once upon a time bottled at 40% alcohol

Huh?

I was referring to these two comments:

Pimm's in the UK is 25% not 20%. I can't remember what it was before they dropped the strength but think that it was 35%. I generally add a bit of extra gin to make up for what they took away!

Interesting to note that people are now adding Gin to Pimms, many years ago it used to be 40% alcohol

Bottled Pimm's gave you all you need to make a No. 1 Cup which I guess is the reason it wasn't used widely in other drinks. It wouldn't have been looked at as an ingredients in its own right (such as Sweet Vermouth) but as a pre-mix you'd use to make your own No. 1 Cup (commonly referred to nowadays as a Pimm's Cup).

I believe I kind of said as much (when I pointed out that no one would use one of today's RTDs as an ingredient), but at the same time, I also see Erik's point that anything in a bottle was usually fair game in the quest for new cocktail ideas.

Having said that, a Pimm's No. 1 Cup seems to be a kind of recursive cocktail, doesn't it?

"So, how do I make a Pimm's No. 1 Cup, then?"

"Well, first take 1.5 oz of Pimm's No. 1 Cup."

"Wait, what???"

Edited June 17, 2011 by brinza (log)