In a previous post on the great Gin Challenge of 2019 I promised the recipe for home-made lime cordial. So here it is!
Lime Cordial Recipe
- Get some limes. Five is a good number to start. Let them get to room temperature
- Wash the limes, scrubbing them with a dishcloth or a soft vegetable brush
- Peel the limes using a vegetable peeler, trying to get only the green skin (minimize the amount of white pith). Don’t worry if the resulting peel is in small pieces – it will be used for flavour and then discarded.

- Juice the limes and measure the amount of juice
- Measure some table sugar. I find for cocktails the best ratio is 1:1 sugar to lime juice, but adjust as you see fit
- Mix the juice and sugar in a non-reactive container. The sugar will eventually dissolve but if you want to speed up the process you can heat it up while stirring. If you do this try not to let the mixture come to the boil
- Remove from heat, and add the lime peels to the juice, crushing them with your hands as you do
- Let the mixture sit in the fridge for 24 hours, then strain out the lime peels
- Store in the refrigerator. It will keep for a long time, as the acids and high sugar content make for a hostile atmosphere for pesky microorganisms
- If you must have the unnatural neon-green hue of Rose’s Lime Cordial, I suppose you could add food colouring. But you’re on your own – this is one avenue that I don’t intend to explore.

Uses
Frankly, this stuff is so delicious that I have been known to just eat a spoonful straight out of the jar. But the traditional use is to thin lime cordial with soda water to make a nice summer drink.
However the key point of lime cordial, at least in my establishment, is that it allows you to mix up a batch of gimlets.
Gimlet Recipe
- Start with a mixing glass or a the large half of a Boston cocktail shaker.
- Pour in 1 1/2 ounces of gin (Plymouth Gin would be a good choice) and 3/4 ounce of lime cordial per serving.
- Add a good number of ice cubes: Four will work, but six is better
- Stir with a cocktail spoon until the mixture is ice-cold. Thirty seconds is probably enough. You should see a strong layer of condensation on the outside of the mixing tin/glass.
- Strain into stemmed cocktail glasses
- Enjoy!
- Hint: if you have leftover mixture in the mixing glass, strain it out into a clean glass and put it into the fridge. If you leave it in the mixing glass it will become diluted. No one wants a weak and watery cocktail.

BTW the cocktail glass shown on the left is a classic design called a Nick and Nora glass. I prefer it over the martini style as it is less prone to tipping over and takes up less real estate in the cabinet. I bought mine at The Crafty Bartender.