Rhubarb Pimm's Cup

Shack really is the chick in this relationship - in a great way, of course. He is the one who LOVES to talk on the phone, loves to shop, loves to buy shoes and absolutely loves lady drinks. Give that guy a blender, some fruit and assorted bottles of booze and look out. He is a true blender artist.

Last winter we went to a wedding in Montreal and our hotel was right down the street from a great bar, The Dominion Square Tavern. These are real bartender mixologist magicians, complete with old timey mustaches, white tuxedo shirts and long, white half aprons. For some reason, known only to him, Shack decided to order a Pimm's Cup despite the fact that he had never had one and had no idea what was in one. Even though it was the first Pimm's Cup either of us had ever had, I know that it was probably the best Pimm's Cup on earth. It was a bit tart, a bit sweet, had almost a bitter edge to it and it was full of cucumber flavour. It instantly became his favourite drink and we vowed to come up with a recipe we could handle at home on our own since Montreal is a five hour drive away and so it's not really reasonable to go all that way every time we want a cocktail.

I finally came up with this version that just seemed to be the right balance of sweet and tart. I am sure it would be delicious with plain simple syrup but the rhubarb simple syrup gave it a little extra something something that put it over the edge. This might be the official drink of the Canada Day weekend!

when I say jigger, I am referring to one of those bartender measures that have a small cup on one side and a larger cup on the other - I used the larger cup. The most important part is the ratios, not the actual measures - if you use 2 oz of pimms then use 4 oz of lemon juice and 1.5 oz of simple syrup. It's up to you how big you need your cocktail to be, just keep the ratios the same.

Rhubarb Pimm's Cup


2 jiggers of Pimms #1
4 jiggers lemon juice
1 1/2 jiggers of rhubarb simple syrup (of course you can use plain old simple syrup too)
ice
cucumber
orange slices
strawberries


So, the first thing I did was to put a few chunks of cucumber into a martini shaker and mash it up. I don't have a proper muddler so I just used the flat handle end of my jigger thing or you can use the end of a wooden spoon. You mash that up and then add the Pimms, the lemon juice and the simple syrup and a couple of ice cubes. Shake that baby up for 20 shakes. Fill a tall glass with some ice, an orange slice, a strawberry cut in half and some cucumber slices and strain the Pimm's mixture into the glass. You really should garnish it with a nice, long cucumber spear that you can dip and munch as you sip your cocktail