Gin Daisy

Plenty of old recipes finish a daisy with a splash and it's a fair call in summer. Sixty milliliters of gin over ice is a short, strong drink, and 30 ml of soda stretches it without making it watery. Pour the soda in after the strain so you keep the lift.

Grenadine is dense and it sinks. Underdissolved in the tin, it slides straight to the bottom of the glass and sits under the ice. Shake with proper cubes for a solid ten seconds so the syrup emulsifies, and pour in one motion rather than tipping the tin out slowly.

Two lots of dilution. It picks up water in the shaker and more from the cubes in the glass. Use one big cube, or fill the glass with large ones rather than half-filling it with small, and chill the glass first so the ice isn't doing all the cooling.

No. Nineteenth-century daisies used gum syrup and orange liqueur, and raspberry turns up about as often as pomegranate. Grenadine became the default around the turn of the century and never left. If you have raspberry syrup in the house, swap it one for one for a brighter, jammier version.

A classic Gin Daisy calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Gin, 22 ml (0.75 oz) Fresh lemon juice, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Grenadine, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Triple sec / Cointreau. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Gin Daisy is roughly 26% 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 Daisy 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.