Classic cocktail · Guided recipe

Bennett

Take a fresh-lime Gimlet, add two dashes of Angostura, and the drink picks up a warm, faintly clove-ish back end that plain gin and lime never had.

Preparation~2 minEasyStrengthStrongabout 25% ABVMethodShaken8 guided stepsIngredients4Coupe or martini glass

Sour

In the glassGin · Fresh lime juice · Simple syrup · Angostura bitters

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Make it with guidanceOne clear action at a time, with timers built in.

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What goes in

Ingredients

An empty clear coupe glass with a shallow rounded bowl and slender stem. — Serving glassCoupe glass

Set up before you pour

Use a coupe glass.

The stem keeps your hand away from a cold drink, while the rounded bowl makes an up serve easy to sip.

Standard size: 200 ml6¾ oz
Ice & serve: Chill it first; serve without ice.
If you don’t own one: Use a small martini glass or stemmed dessert glass.

Tools to set out

cocktail shaker
strainer (or a small sieve)
jigger or measuring spoon

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Scale to your coupe or martini glassWe’ll remember this glass size.

Gin60 ml
Fresh lime juice22 ml
Simple syrup15 ml
Angostura bitters2 dashes

Start making

From bottle to glass

Method

01
Measure into the shaker
Pour 60 ml gin into your shaker
- Gin
02
Measure into the shaker
Add 22 ml fresh lime juice
- Fresh lime juice
03
Measure into the shaker
Add 15 ml simple syrup
- Simple syrup
04
Measure into the shaker
Add 2 dashes Angostura
- Angostura bitters
05
Ice the shaker
Fill the shaker with ice
Why it mattersFill it right up — more ice chills faster with less watering down.
06
Seal and shake
Seal and shake hard
Why it mattersCold hands mean it’s working. Shake until the tin frosts over.
07
Strain cleanly
Strain into a chilled glass — no ice
Why it mattersPour through the strainer so the spent shaker ice stays behind.
08
Finish the drink
Finish it — add a lime wheel

Know your drink

About the Bennett

A gin highball, dry Martini and ruby bitter gin cocktail in a botanical bar.

Bitters as seasoning

Angostura in a sour behaves the way salt behaves in cooking. It adds no flavor you can name afterwards. It makes the flavors already there read louder. Gin, lime and sugar is a clean but slightly blank combination, and two dashes give the finish somewhere to go instead of stopping dead on the tongue.

Who Bennett was, nobody has established. A Bennett Cocktail appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 with no note attached, which is normal for that book and unhelpful for everyone since. Names like this one usually belonged to regulars, and regulars rarely left more behind than a surname on a page.

Common questions

Bennett FAQ

Is two dashes enough to notice?

Comfortably. Two dashes is about a milliliter of a 45 percent bitter loaded with gentian and clove, and against gin and lime that reads immediately. Three is fine at this pour of gin. Four and the spice sits on top of everything, and the drink stops tasting of gin.

Is a Bennett meant to drink dry or sweet?

Dry. Twenty-two milliliters of lime against 15 of syrup puts it on the sour side of even, and older printings run drier still, with a bare teaspoon of sugar. If you find that austere, go to 20 ml of syrup, but don't match the lime or the bitters vanish.

My limes are dry. Anything I can do?

Roll them hard on the counter under your palm first, and get them out of the fridge an hour ahead. A cold lime gives up perhaps half what a room-temperature one does. Ten seconds in the microwave works if you're in a hurry. What won't work is topping up with bottled juice.

What ingredients are in a Bennett?

A classic Bennett calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Gin, 22 ml (0.75 oz) Fresh lime juice, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Simple syrup, 2 dashes Angostura Angostura bitters. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

How strong is a Bennett?

A standard Bennett is roughly 25% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.

Is a Bennett shaken or stirred?

A Bennett is shaken — the rule of thumb is to shake anything with citrus juice. About 13 seconds with plenty of ice chills and dilutes it correctly.

What glass do you serve a Bennett in?

Serve a Bennett in a chilled coupe glass, well chilled — this drink is served without ice, so a cold glass keeps it cold.

Sharpen the technique