Gin Cobbler

London dry, if you want the orange kept in check. Old Tom's own sweetness stacks on the 15 ml of syrup and the drink goes soft in the middle. With Old Tom, cut the syrup to 8 ml and add a squeeze of lemon for structure.

Under-packed ice. Fill to the rim with crushed ice, stir, then top up again, because the level always drops once it settles. A two-thirds-full glass melts into juice within minutes; there simply isn't enough mass in there to stay cold.

Grapefruit works and pushes it bitter, so add 4 ml more syrup. Pineapple works and turns it tropical. Lemon on its own doesn't, because a cobbler needs juice with some body rather than pure acid, and you'd end up with a thin Gin Fix.

Practically speaking, yes. Crushed ice packs tightly enough that tipping the glass delivers ice before liquid, and the drink is meant to be drawn slowly from the bottom while the top stays frozen. A wide reusable straw beats a narrow one.

A classic Gin Cobbler calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Gin, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Orange juice, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Simple syrup. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Gin Cobbler is roughly 27% 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.

A Gin Cobbler is stirred, not shaken. It contains no citrus juice, so stirring keeps it crystal clear and silky instead of cloudy and aerated.