Cucumber-Lime-Gin Punch

Just in time for Memorial Day, an original knock-yo-socks off punch. This combo has been percolating in my brain for some time now — I think I had my first cucumber drink at Little Branch in December 2006. Since then, I’ve seen cucumber showing up in more and more drinks, but still not nearly enough for my liking. For me, cucumber juice is the perfect mixer (at least when it comes to gin, but aren’t you drinking your bourbon on the rocks anyway?). It cuts the alcohol, as a mixer is supposed to do, but in a complementary, rather than cloying, way. It’s a hint of crispness that really nicely sets off the slight herbiness of the gin. And it turns your drink a magnificent green!

If I were just making cocktails for a few friends, I would peel and slice a cucumber, muddle it with a little fresh lime juice and some sugar (and maybe some basil?!) and then stir the whole thing up with gin (resembling something like a Gordon’s Cup). Next time (and there will be a next time — I have cucumber juice leftover). This time, I was making drinks for a crowd, which meant punch, which meant I quickly realized that a bowlful of gin with a little cucumber juice was not such a good idea. Enter limeade, my next favorite mixer (a good one for vodka, too). Cheap, dilute, sweet, tangy. Great.

The ingredients here are of the make-your-life-easier variety: MinuteMaid limeade, presqueezed lime juice. With one notable exception: the cucumber juice itself. But until supermarkets catch up to mixologists, we at-home mixologists are just going to have to listen to some This American Life, and peel and food process and strain our own cucumbers. Try to do it the night before to avoid undue stress, and it’s not so bad.

From my cocktail glass (mason jar) to yours….(now might be a good time to mention that the party liked this drink so much they named it “the Claire.” aw, shucks.)

Cucumber-Lime-Gin Punch (“the Claire”)

Ingredients

- gin (I used Booth’s)

- limeade (I used MinuteMaid Light)

- lime juice (I used the presqueezed kind that comes in the lime-shaped bottle, but you can squeeze your own if you’re a purist/masochist)

- sugar

- cucumbers*

Proportions for one bowl of punch are roughly:

.75L gin + 1 carton MinuteMaid limeade + 1 bottle lime juice + 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar (to taste) + juice from 5 cucumbers. Add ice to punch bowl and to glasses (this baby is strong).

* To make cucumber juice:

1. Peel cucumbers.

2. Slice cucumbers.

3. Put as many slices of cucumber as you can fit in your food processor (I fit about 2 cucumbers’ worth). Process until the pulp is whizzing around freely (about 2 minutes).

4. Pour pureed cucumber into a strainer set over a large bowl. Stir to force liquid through. Ta-da.

N.B. You can save the cucumber pulp and mix it with yogurt for a very saucy kind of raita.