Distiller’s Notebook: The Eastsider

Distiller’s Notebook is an ongoing series of dispatches from the world of craft spirits from the desk of Short Path Distillery

A refrain we hear a lot is, “I can’t drink gin anymore — I had a bad experience with it in college,” or “I don’t like gin, or anything with gin in it.”

We used to think this, too. But it turns out we were simply drinking bad gin, poorly crafted cocktails or, let’s be honest, a combination of both. The first time we truly enjoyed gin together involved nothing more than a gin and tonic with quality gin and real tonic water. It’s amazing what good ingredients will do for a drink.

Bolstered by that one simple yet amazing gin and tonic, Zachary, our Chief Distiller, has been constantly searching for great gin cocktails beyond gin and tonic.

That search took him to a bar in Brooklyn with his brother, where the bartender sliced cucumber into his gin cocktail. While he had enjoyed a slice of cucumber as a garnish before, he’d never really given it much thought as an ingredient. Soon after, he was watching an episode of Speakeasy, where one of the guests was drinking a cocktail he’d never heard of before: an Eastsider.

Trust us: this drink will change your life in the most positive of ways. It’s the gin cocktail you won’t have to trick your gin-hating friends into drinking.

Here’s how we like to make it:

Ingredients:
2oz gin
1/2 lime, cut into quarters
0.75oz simple syrup
1/2 cucumber, sliced
mint

Directions:
Muddle mint leaves, sliced cucumber, and lime in a shaker tin until cucumber is nicely mashed. Add simple syrup, gin, and ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a slice of cucumber.