The Gin Rickey! The EASIEST no-sugar cocktail ever.

Shall we dive in? Let's dive in. Welcome back, friends. It's Anders. Today, we are going to be making arguably the most simple cocktail in the world. Period. This drink has no added sugar, so for those of you who have been asking for a cocktail that doesn't have any syrups or liqueurs added to it, this is one for you. We're making the Gin Ricky. It's a classic. It dates back a long time ago. It's so easy to put together, and it's so good. There's nothing fancy to do about it. It's very refreshing, especially on a hot day like today. I'm going to make the Gin Ricky, and then I'm going to make a few other variations on it because, truth be told, the Ricky is meant to be riffed upon. You could make this with rum. You could make this with tequila, which is essentially a ranch water, but we're going to be making different variations that they would have made long ago in the days of yore. If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button for more sips, tips, and recipes, and let's go make the Gin Ricky. Hello. I'm here with my associate to deliver a message from today's sponsor, Chinola. You might know Chinola from their passion fruit liqueur, but they have a new mango liqueur that I am excited to talk about today. It is made from fresh mangoes and just a touch of passion fruit. No artificial flavors or ingredients. It is just like the passion fruit liqueur, 42 proof, 21%, so it is shelf stable, and it works really well in a cocktail. So, I'm thinking we make ourselves a cocktail. The Chinola mango margarita. All right. Like so many margaritas, first we need to prep our glassware. So, we are going to give this a tajin rim. Put this back in the freezer. Now, in a shaking tin, let's start with one ounce of Chinola mango liqueur. Now, an ounce and a half of tequila or mezcal. I'm going with mezcal here. Three quarters of an ounce of fresh lime juice and half an ounce of agave nectar. Now, if you want, a couple dashes of spicy bitters would be good in here, but I'm going without the spice. Now, we can shake it up with some ice and double strain into the glass. I'm going to garnish this with a lime wheel, just like that. There it is, the Chinola mango margarita. Cheers. The mango isn't too much. Bright, fresh, and really nice with the spicy rim. This is handcrafted in the Dominican Republic. Not overly sweet, even though it is a liqueur. And if you like mangoes, then you definitely should give it a shot. If you want to grab your own bottle, click on the link down below and use code Anders10 to receive $10 off the Chinola online shop. Thank you, Chinola. On to the film. I've got all of these drinking options. I've got coffee. I've got sparkling water. I've got flat water. All right, real quick, before we jump in here, I got to go over the history, because this drink is old. It dates back to the 1880s. It was made popular at a place called Shoemakers, which was a bar in Washington, D.C. a long time ago. Not there anymore. It was, a side note, nicknamed Shoes, S-H-O-O-S, not the things we wear on our feet. And it's believed this drink was created by a bartender named George Williamson. Now, he was the head bartender at Shoes, and he made it for a guy named Colonel Joseph Rickey. Now, the original was whiskey-based, not gin. The idea, though, was that you could use any base spirit. So, about 10 years later, the Gin Rickey became way more popular. In the decades that followed, the Gin Rickey kind of fell out of fashion. In fact, all Rickeys fell out of fashion. But in 2011, they had a comeback when Washington, D.C. named it its official cocktail. Pretty cool. I don't know if it's actually the Gin Rickey that is the official cocktail or just Rickey's, you know, the umbrella of cocktails. I don't know. I mean, it's such a simple build of lime juice, base spirit, bubbly water, and people will add their own little tweaks to it. A lot of people will add sugar, which I feel like if you're adding sugar to a Rickey, you're kind of steering it into Tom Collins territory. So, I personally leave sugar out of my Rickeys. Now, I have always used dry gin in my Gin Rickeys. But if you think about it, back then in the late 1800s, early 1900s, dry gin wasn't really a thing. In fact, in the Bartender's Manual by Harry Johnson from 1900, the Gin Rickey recipe calls for Tom or Holland gin. There was no dry gin to be had. So, today, I thought I'm going to make the Rickey that I'm familiar with, with the dry gin. I'm also going to do an Old Tom. I'm going to do the Geneva. And then, why not? I'm going to do the Whiskey Rickey, which is also called a Joe Rickey. And I'm going to see how I like them. By the way, I got most of this information from this ginormous book here. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails by David Wondrich. A good book if you are needing information on any of this stuff. The reason why I tell you that is because this drink is so old. There's a lot of history around it. And different sources say different things. So, that was my primary source. Also, in the book, it does have an old recipe from Joe Rickey. It's handwritten. Let me show you right here. There are zero measurements here, but I like the fact that there's a nice little visual of an old note. So, now the booze. All right. This shouldn't take too long. It's a very simple build. To make the dry Gin Rickey, we're going to need dry gin, a whole lime, and bubbly water. That's it. I don't know if I'm centered or what looks best here. But yeah, these are the three things that make up the cocktail. For the gin, any dry gin will do, London or otherwise. The lime, we're going to use a whole lime. And we're going to actually build this in the glass. So, have a good juicy lime. And then the bubbly water, you can use whatever you want. Just make sure it's cold. I like Topo Chico because of its aggressive bubbles. Who doesn't enjoy an aggressive bubble? Yeah. Let's build. So, first thing we want to do is we want to take that lime that I was talking about earlier and squish it up a little bit. You know, just kind of beat it up. We want that thing to be a little soft so that it's easier to juice. I think some people believe that this actually makes more juice, but I don't see how that's scientifically possible. But it does actually make it easier to squeeze the juice out. We are going to put this in our drink. So, give them a wash. And of course, take off any stickers. I hate stickers on fruit. Cut your lime in half. There we go. Right down the middle. Get that ice cold highball. Put it in front of you and drop in one ice cube. And now, we can squeeze the juice from this lime half right on top. It's going to be roughly half an ounce. Get it all in there. Also, by squeezing it, you're expressing some of those oils. It's like it's all over the place and it smells nice. And then, drop it right in. Just like that. It's a little cap on the ice. Now, we can add the gin. I'm going to do ounce and a half right in the glass. One more ice cube on top. Kind of making an ice cube sandwich. The lime is the middle. It's the meat. And then, we can top it off with the bubbly water. Right on top. This is going to be about three ounces for this glass. If you've got a taller Collins glass, you might add more. And that's fine. The more bubbles you add, the more toned down the lime juice will be. I am going to give it a quick stir to incorporate everything. I'm using the back of my bar spoon because it's going to be a tight squeeze with that lime shell in there. There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, the Gin Ricky. Cheers. All right. Let's give it a taste. It's so easy. It's dry because of the gin. I definitely get the gin. There's like a pininess to it. And this is going to depend on the dry gin you use. It's a different kind of sour cocktail because you don't have the sweetness balancing out the citrus. Instead, you just are relying on the dilution and the bubbles to do that for you. So, I really like it. It's a dry, clean cocktail. It is tart. It's tart and very refreshing. So, just because I'm curious, I'm going to make it now. And I feel like this is such a simple cocktail that we need to video. I'm going to make it a few different ways with the Old Tom, the Geneva, and the bourbon. Here we go. So, now we're going to make three more. I'm going to go with the Old Tom, Geneva, and whiskey right here. Drop in the ice cube just like before. The reason why I put the ice cube on the bottom is to lift up the lime shell so that it's suspended in the drink like this. I just think it looks really cool and it kind of acts as a garnish in a way too. Now, we can squeeze the lime juice on top of the ice just like before. One. I like it when it's face down. There we go. It's for me, so I don't mind handling it. Two. There we go. Three. Okay, good. Now, let's add the base spirits. First up, we have Old Tom Gin. This is a favorite of mine. Scofflaw. But another good one is Heyman's Old Tom Gin. I like that one very much. Available in my collection on Curiata. Link down below. The Geneva is number two. This is kind of the precursor to gin. It's going to be a bit maltier and interesting. Then, I'm going with bourbon. I could have done rye, but allegedly the favorite whiskey of Joe Ricci was bourbon. Top it off with more ice. I've touched everything in these cocktails, so I'm just using my hands. Good. Now, top it off with that bubbly water. Again, about three ounces. Give it that same stir. I also like drinking this one without a straw. I mean, you could do a straw, but I don't know. Something about getting hit with bubbles in the face is part of the experience. Let's just say that. Booyah. So, let's go down the line here. I've got the Old Tom, which I anticipate is going to be a little sweeter than the dry gin. Cheers. Hey, that's pretty good. This is a little bit sweeter, and I taste that Old Tom gin that I like a lot. This one is a little bit softer because of the Old Tom. Let's try the Geneva, or Geneva if you are Dutch. The Geneva has that maltiness that I mentioned. It's completely different. I mean, it really comes down to the base spirit. I prefer the dry gin. So now, the real different one here, the Joe Ricci with bourbon. Cheers. That one's not bad. I have to be honest, though. I think I would prefer it with lemon. That's not to say you can't mix bourbon with lime. The lion's tail is the first thing that comes to mind, but there is something magical about whiskey and lemon. The only issue there is the half a lemon probably won't fit in this glass. All of these are pretty good. What I'm saying is whatever you got at home, throw it into a Ricci. I'm just most accustomed to the dry gin Ricci, so that's probably where my preferences lie, but I'm not going to turn down any of these. Just adding bubbly water and a little lime to something makes it good. That's a pretty easy template to go by. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this. This was a fun little walk down Ricci lane, and thank you Chinola for sponsoring today's film. Leave a comment down below if you are trying any of these, and don't forget your merch. Link down below. I will see you next time. Cheers.