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FOOD & DRINK


Anyone for PIMM’s?


A Pimm’s and lemonade is one of the most ubiquitous summer cocktails around. Just as soon as that big yellow ball in the sky starts to make an appearance, the plastic pitchers in the back of the cup- board come to life as if they’re straight out of a Disney film. They wriggle their way to kitchen centrepiece and before you know it, you’ve shaken off the dust and loaded them up with ice and fruit.


Few people realise however, that Pimm’s No.1 is in fact a type of infusion known as a ‘fruit cup,’ sometimes known as the Summer Cup or if you’re feeling wordy, the Summer Fruit Cup. And that it is made from a gin base. Sweet and satisfy- ing, with a low booze content and a high complexity, enjoying a good old Pimm’s is one of the most quintessentially British pastimes around. Fruity and herbal, with a spice depth that renders it both surprising and delicious, it is a universally adored cocktail, traversing all genders, classes, ages and races.


When it comes to gin tangents, variations and subcategories there are now many. The gin boom has brought in a wave of new and revived categories, from Old Tom and Navy Strength to Cask Aged and everything in between. However, one of gin’s most famous and uniquely British, off- shoots has yet to properly break the sin- gle brand monopoly, let alone be recognised globally. In fairness, there’s a reason for Pimm’s dominance as a prod- uct: it tastes great. But it seems a shame for there not to be a wider understanding that there are more fruit cups out there. It’s even got to the stage where last sum- mer several newspapers started referring to the whole category as Pimm’s, instead of Summer Cup, when describing com- petitor products and the race for super- market presence – much like when people described all vacuum cleaners as a Hoover…


So what’s the history of Pimm’s? The origi- nal inventor James Pimm, a farmer’s son


Here’s a recipe for you to try your hand at to get started. It will be a touch more bitter in comparison to Pimm’s, so if you like a sweeter profile, add sugar once the infusion is done. Also, if you have a recipe that you’d care to share or tell everyone about, tweet @GinFoundry with an image and we’ll be sure to continue spreading the love.


Add all of these ingredients into a jar, which can be sealed and stored in the fridge. Let it infuse for a least a day, taste, then let it continue infusing to suit your prefer- ence. Once ready, fine strain and store in a fridge. Use as you would Pimm’s and serve with lemonade or ginger ale.


Half a bottle of juniper forward gin, half a bottle of sweet vermouth, half a sweet orange, cut into wheels. a tiny amount of (dried) bitter orange peel, a dozen strawberries cut into quarters, a dozen cherries with the stones removed, a sprig of lemon thyme, a couple of sprigs of lemon verbena


22 FOCUS The Magazine July/August 2018


from Kent, is thought to have invented the recipe in the 1820’s. In that time, he be- came the owner of an oyster bar in the City of London, going on to own a chain of them in the decades that followed. It is thought that his establishment near the Bank of England is where the drink was popularised, alongside other infusions, or ‘cups’, that he created.


Allegedly, he offered this gin-based drink containing a secret mixture of herbs and liqueurs, as a tonic and an aid to digestion, serving it in a small tankard. The gin-based infusion became known as a ‘No. 1 Cup’ (as opposed to No. 2, 3, 4 or 5 which were different and made using a different base spirit), hence its subsequent name today. Pimm’s as a bottled brand only re- ally began large-scale production in 1851 to keep up with sales to other bars. By then, demand for the liqueur in other bars and restaurants meant that Pimm’s was moved to a large-scale bottling produc- tion, becoming a brand somewhere along the way. James Pimm sold the business in 1865 and it went through many hands be- fore landing in the lap of Diageo in 1997, whose stewardship has furthered it into an iconic British tipple.


Although it has gone through its ups and downs in the past 50 years, so ubiquitous and inexpensive is Pimm’s today, that it’s considered a basic staple of British super- markets. Pimm’s shows up at many events, from festivals to picnics to Wimbledon. The latter is probably one of the longest standing associations – when you think of


www.focus-info.org


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