South Side
The South Side is a very popular cocktail. When people try it for the first time, they're often pleasantly surprised by the freshness of the mint.
Ingredients
-
60 ml
Gin
-
30 ml
Lemon juice
-
20 ml
Simple syrup
-
5 leaf
Mint
-
Ice for shaking
-
1
Egg white optional
Steps to make the drink
- Chill your glass; a Nick & Nora glass is a good choice, for example.
- Put the gin, lemon juice, syrup and mint leaves in your shaker.
- Add a generous amount of ice to the shaker.
- Shake until the shaker's nicely chilled, about 20 seconds.
- Double strain the drink through the shaker's strainer and a bar strainer.
- Garnish with a mint leaf.
The interplay of mint, lemon and sweetness works beautifully with a classic gin, whose generous juniper flavour adds depth to the cocktail. There are different accounts of where the name comes from. The first I read suggested Chicago's South Side as its birthplace. Let's leave it at that for now.
Building on a Gin Sour
A sour cocktail is always an easy, quick and delicious option. The Gin Sour is one example, and you can make the same kind of drink with rum, whisky and so on. The ratio is often around 5:3:2: five parts gin, three parts citrus juice and two parts simple syrup. The South Side brings mint into the mix, and that's the touch so many people love.
The variety of gin cocktails
With so many different ways to make gin cocktails, you can explore an incredible range of flavours. The South Side is definitely a cornerstone of any list of essential gin cocktails. Compared with a Negroni, which can sometimes feel rather heavy, this drink feels lighter. Be careful, though: it tastes less alcoholic than it is.