How to Make a Strawberry Gimlet
This Strawberry Gimlet is the drink you need on warm summer evenings that call for sweet, refreshing cocktails. It’s a classic cocktail variation for sipping on the patio alongside a cheese or charcuterie plate and good conversation.
These are the drinks my kiddo looks at longingly. Luckily, the strawberry simple syrup can either be turned into a strawberry gimlet with gin or into a virgin strawberry limeade by adding soda water.
Ingredients
The classic gimlet was a very sweet drink made with equal amounts of gin and lime cordial. Over the years, cocktails have become less sweet as tastes have changed. The gimlet is now considered one of the classic sour cocktails like the margarita or daiquiri.
- Gin – use any type of gin in this strawberry gimlet recipe
- Strawberries – fresh or frozen will both work perfectly
- Lime juice – fresh squeezed, always!
Variations
If a strawberry syrup gin cocktail isn’t your thing, the gimlet is highly adaptable to vodka or your preferred alcohol.
- Use rum and you’ve got a strawberry daiquiri.
- If you use lemon juice, add soda water to the cocktail, and serve it over ice, you’d have a strawberry Tom Collins.
- If you like the flavors of strawberry and basil together, muddle some basil leaves in your shaker for a strawberry basil gimlet.
- Change it up with a syrup made from a different summer berry like this blackberry syrup.
- Go alcohol-free with a mocktail for the kids (instructions below).
Recipe tips and tricks
Hulling strawberries
The simplest way to hull a fresh strawberry is shown in the photos below. First grasp the leaves together and pull them off (Panels #1 and #2). Then, use a paring knife, always cutting away from yourself, to remove the stem. Easy!
Making the strawberry simple syrup
Simple syrups are really, well, simple to make. Just start with equal amounts of sugar and water in a pot and bring them together over low heat.
Cool and strain with a fine sieve for your strawberry syrup cocktail or mocktail. Those strawberries have tiny seeds!
Making the cocktail
Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake for 10 to 20 seconds. You can serve this gimlet with ice in a rocks glass or straight up. Your preference.
Tip from the wise quacker: The general teaching is that cocktails with citrus juices should be shaken, but cocktails with only alcohols should be stirred.
This recipe makes a cocktail on the sweeter side. If you prefer dry cocktails, use the classic sour formula of 2 ounces of gin and three-quarter ounces of both simple syrup and lime juice.
Make it a mocktail
To make a strawberry limeade mocktail, combine the strawberry simple syrup, lime juice, and ice in your shaker, shake and strain into a tall glass filled with ice. Top with club soda or tonic water.
Recipe FAQs
No, go ahead and shake to whatever song you like. But there a few things you shouldn’t do.
Store homemade simple syrups in the refrigerator for a week or two. Some people say you can freeze simple syrups, but this works best if you have a deep freezer.
Add strawberries to the strawberry limeade, serve them over peanut butter waffles, with yogurt and homemade granola, or just eat them with a spoon!
Related recipes
Check out other Ugly Duckling Bakery summer cocktails like this blue mojito, lavender gimlet. elderflower Tom Collins, jalapeno raspberry bramble, spicy margarita, Aperol sour, or blackberry vodka sour. Kiddo loves a mocktail made with that blackberry simple syrup too!
If you’re looking for strawberry recipes, try:
Love cocktails and want to explore more? Read all about classic cocktails and bartender basics or join this year’s 52 weeks of cocktails challenge!
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Strawberry Gimlet
Equipment
- Cocktail shaker
Ingredients
Strawberry simple syrup
- 1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen If fresh, stemmed, hulled, and roughly chopped.
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
Strawberry gimlet
- 2 ounce gin
- 1 ounce strawberry simple syrup
- ½ ounce lime juice
- strawberry or lime wheel
Instructions
Strawberry simple syrup
- Combine the chopped strawberries, sugar, and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a slow barely bubbling simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool.1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen, ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup water
- Strain the strawberry syrup into a clean measuring cup or jar using the finest strainer you have.
Strawberry gimlet
- Combine about a half cup of ice with the gin, simple syrup, and lime juice into a cocktail shaker and shake for 10 to 20 seconds until chilled. Double strain the gimlet into a martini glass or a rocks glass with a large ice cube and garnish with half of a strawberry.2 ounce gin, 1 ounce strawberry simple syrup, ½ ounce lime juice, strawberry or lime wheel
Notes
- This strawberry gimlet recipe makes a sweet cocktail. If you aren’t partial to sweet, use the classic sour formula of 2 ounces of gin and three-quarter ounces of both strawberry syrup and lime juice.
- Please see the main post for tips in hulling fresh strawberries.
- Straining the strawberry simple syrup and then double straining the gimlet keeps all those pesky strawberry seeds from getting in your teeth!
- The gimlet is a shaken cocktail. The classic teaching is that cocktails with fruit juices should be shaken, and cocktails with only liquors should be stirred with ice.
- Feel free to serve this strawberry gimlet over ice or neat.
Nutrition
This strawberry gimlet recipe was first shared on May 8, 2021. It was last updated May 24, 2023.
Looking for dinner inspiration, classic recipes and new seasonal favorites?
You are inspiring me to make some flavored simple syrups.
You should! The strawberry syrup was particularly divine.