Lime Cordial

Featured above with ice cream, which I strongly recommend...

Gimlet drinkers this is for you. And despite a purist's objection, I include the vodka gimlet drinkers, because I'm one!

As we've talked about, flavored simple syrups will definitely elevate your home bar experience. I love creating them, and have several recipes here on my blog. But what I haven't experimented with are cordials.

Like simple syrups, cordials are flavored syrups, yet they are more concentrated, and usually made from fruit. Rose's lime juice is the classic commercial lime cordial for gimlets. It has the perfect sour bite and punch for gimlets, but it's no secret it's laden with artificial flavors and colors. And using lime juice for the gimlet, even with the zest, imho doesn't provide the intensity needed to stand up to the heavy ratio of gin or vodka.

Enter revered food journalist Jennifer Biggs, of The Daily Memphian. I interviewed her for my blog, requesting that she send me a favorite cocktail recipe. She responded with this genius recipe for homemade lime cordial, which she uses in her gimlets, from jeffreymorgenthaler.com. The recipe uses fresh limes, an abundance of fresh lime peel, and adds all natural citric acid for that intense zing. Don't worry, citric acid is found naturally in citrus fruits...bite a lemon and you've tasted citric acid! The concoction is a pretty, almost chartreuse yellow-green color, and the taste is vibrant. Jennifer recommends a gimlet cocktail that's 1.5 - 2 ounces of liquor (gin or vodka) and 1 ounce lime cordial, shaken over ice, strained, served neat or on the rocks.

I'll be dreaming of other cocktails and recipes where I use this lime cordial, and other homemade cordials to make in the future. As for now, time for a gimlet...vodka version.😉What will you create with it?

Prep Time: 15 minutes Yield: 1 1/2 cups

INGREDIENTS:

250g granulated (white) sugar

8 ounces (1 cup) hot water

1 1/2 ounce (45ml) fresh organic lime juice

1 1/2 ounce (45 ml) freshly grated organic lime peel

1 ounce (30 ml) citric acid

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a food grade glass bottle. Store in the refrigerator.

Note: Despite straining through a fine mesh strainer, some micro particles of lime zest remained in the cordial. And it is a delectable thing! However, if you desired further straining, strain through cheesecloth.