Gin Cooler

Mostly sugar and length. Old bar books used Cooler for a spirit stretched with a carbonated mixer and very little sweetening, sometimes with no citrus at all. A Collins is a full sour lengthened with soda. Side by side, the Collins tastes like lemonade.

You'll land closer to a sweetened G and T. Tonic carries roughly 8 g of sugar per 100 ml plus quinine, so leave the syrup out entirely and cut the lemon to 10 ml. Otherwise the drink turns sticky and can't decide what it is.

Chill everything, pour the soda last down the side of a glass packed with cubes, and stir once with a slow lift from the bottom. Every extra stir knocks out carbonation, and half-melted ice from a warm glass accelerates the whole problem.

Stir superfine sugar into the lemon juice first, before the gin goes anywhere near it. Two teaspoons of caster sugar to 15 ml of juice is about right. Granulated sugar will sit at the bottom and grit the last mouthful.

A classic Gin Cooler calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Gin, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Fresh lemon juice, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Simple syrup, 90 ml (3 oz) Soda water. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Gin Cooler is roughly 11% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it a relatively light, sessionable drink — similar in strength to a beer.

A Gin Cooler is built directly in the glass over ice — no shaker required. Add the ingredients in order and give it a brief, gentle stir.