In the past, I have always struggled with what to order at a bar when beer isn't an option. I found myself trying something new every time, but never finding my drink, as things always seemed to sweet, too boozey or too complicated to recreate easily.
But now I've found my drink, and it's gloriously simple and refreshing: the gin rickey.
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| Homemade gin rickey, made with the cute but seedy jeruk nipis. |
It's head-slapping straightforward with only 3 ingredients, so it can be made by any bartender at any respectable bar (and probably most unrespectable bars, too!): gin (I like Bombay Sapphire), lime juice, soda water. It's so refreshing, especially in a warm climate like Indonesia, not too sweet (unlike gin and tonics, which I find to be simultaneously too sweet and too quinine-y), and is made from ingredients that are easy and cheap to procure (ok, well, gin is not cheap to procure here). Also, apparently its origins are in DC, which is pretty cool.