Eastside cocktail recipe

You may have heard of a Southside before, but have you ventured over to the Eastside?

In comparison to some of the other drinks in our cocktail library, the Eastside is just a baby. First made in 2004 by bartender George Delgado at Libation in New York City, The Eastside incorporates all the ingredients you’d find in a Southside cocktail, with the addition of some refreshing cucumber. It did fairly well in NYC circles, but it wasn’t until bartender Christy Pope brought the drink to Milk and Honey in London that it really took off.

First made as a long drink in a Collins glass, the team at Milk and Honey decided the drink would be sexier if it were served straight-up in a coupe, like a traditional Gimlet cocktail. The result is a finely strained, minty, sour, cucumber sensation.

This drink could be pigeon-holed as a summer drink, but we reckon it’s best served whenever yo uwant. It’s light, it’s not too sweet and it’s refreshing, making it a great pre-dinner cocktail to have any season. And why wouldn’t you? Just take a look at this pretty drink and you’ll start salivating.

There’s not much you can get wrong with the Eastside cocktail. It’s one of those drinks where you can just chuck all the ingredients into a shaker and be done with it. The best advice we can give to any new Eastside shakers out there is to make sure you use a very fine strainer, like a tea strainer. That way you don’t have to worry about little chunks of cucumber and mint floating around in your drink.

And if you don’t like having part of a garden salad in your cocktails, that’s no problem. Omit the cucumber and you’ve got yourself a Southside cocktail.