Sour · Anytime · Summer

Gin Basil Smash

A fistful of basil shaken with gin, lemon and sugar until the drink turns green. Herbal, tart, and it smells like a garden.

Base: Gin
Glass: Old fashioned glass
Method: Shake
Strength: 20% ABV

Ingredients

60 mlGin1 swap
Any London dry ginhigh
Depends on the brand’s botanicals
22.5 mlFreshly Squeezed Lemon Juice1 swap
Fresh lime juicemedium
A touch sharper
22.5 mlSugar Syrup
10 pcItalian Basil leaves

How to make

Technique

Shake · 10–15s

Shaking chills the drink fast while adding dilution and a light texture.

Add all ingredients into shaker with ice.
Shake vigorously and pour into chilled cocktail glass.

Serve

Glass

Old fashioned glassAlso fine: Double old fashioned glass, Rocks glass, Tumbler

Garnish

Basil leafOne clean leaf, floated last so it stays flat.

Taste & nutrition

20%ABV

175kcal

2.07Drinks

StrengthMedium

Sweet to dryBalanced

Estimated from ingredient amounts and assumed ABVs — not a lab measurement.

Good to know

Use freshly squeezed juice — bottled tastes flat.

History

Year2008

PlaceHamburg, Germany

Created byJörg Meyer

Jörg Meyer created the Gin Basil Smash in 2008 at Le Lion in Hamburg, first calling it the Gin Pesto. Whole basil leaves are muddled and shaken with gin, lemon and sugar, turning the drink a vivid green. Meyer blogged about it, and it spread across the world within months. It is one of the few 21st-century drinks to reach true modern-classic status.

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