Eastside
Also known as East Side
A South Side with cucumber: gin, lime, mint and a few slices of cucumber, served up.
The Eastside takes the South Side — gin, lime, sugar and mint — and adds muddled cucumber. George Delgado at Libation in New York is the name most often attached to it, with 2004 as the date, though the attribution rests on cocktail reference works rather than contemporary records. The cucumber makes it a summer drink rather than a year-round one, and the double strain matters: without it the mint and cucumber shreds sit in the glass and turn the drink bitter.
- Cucumber-and-mint gins and the broader herb-and-vegetable sour family followed it onto menus through the 2010s.
- Eastside with a cucumber ribbon
- South Side (no cucumber)
- Eastside Collins (topped with soda)
“The name points at Manhattan’s Lower East Side rather than at any ingredient.”
Ingredients
- Gin60 ml
- Lime juice22.5 ml
- Simple syrup15 ml
- Cucumber3 slices
- Mint leaves6
- Cucumber sliceto garnish
Method
Muddle the cucumber and mint with the syrup, add the gin and lime, shake hard with ice and double-strain into a chilled coupe; garnish with a cucumber slice.
Coupe · no ice · cucumber slice