South Facet Cocktail Recipe

The South Facet, a mix of gin, lemon juice, mint, and easy syrup, has a muddled and cloudy historical past. Ask 5 bartenders the place this recent and vivid cocktail originated, and also you’re more likely to get 5 completely different solutions.

Probably the most generally repeated origin story is that the South Facet was the go-to drink for speakeasies throughout Prohibition, with rumors that well-known Chicagoland gangster Al Capone was not directly concerned with the cocktail’s origin. Others tie the South Facet to the 21 Membership in New York Metropolis, the place the South Facet was the previous speakeasy’s home drink. Neither of those origin tales are appropriate, although.

Based on Eric Felten in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, the South Facet’s historical past could be traced to the Southside Sportsman’s Membership in Lengthy Island, New York, the place it started because the bar’s Mint Julep. From there, the membership’s rich clientele unfold its recognition by asking for the drink at different bars. The drink made its first look in print in Hugo Ensslin’s 1917 cocktail ebook Recipes for Blended Drinks, that means the South Facet was round nicely earlier than Prohibition and Capone’s arrival in Chicago. Within the years that adopted, the South Facet gained a repute as a drink for rich nation membership members and sporting sorts.

Why the South Facet works

The South Facet is analogous in construct to many basic cocktails. Its mixture of spirit, citrus juice, and sugar locations it within the realm of some of the versatile and timeless cocktail classes, the bitter. This blueprint is put to make use of in lots of timeless classics just like the Daiquiri, Tommy’s Margarita, and the Gin Bitter.

This template works as a result of the substances work collectively to create a balanced cocktail. The alcoholic chunk of the gin is tempered by the addition of straightforward syrup. The lemon juice’s acidity supplies a counterbalance to the sweetness of the easy syrup. The mint provides a natural aspect that pairs nicely with the botanical notes of the gin and provides the South Facet a pop of freshness. The result’s a vivid, minty, and refreshing cocktail that’s excellent for a day on the nation membership.