Why a Gin Basil Smash needs a fistful of basil: the spec and a scaling builder

The Gin Basil Smash looks like a garden in a glass and tastes like a gin sour that has been through a herb bed. It was created by Jörg Meyer at Le Lion bar in Hamburg in summer 2008, first under the name Gin Pesto, and it has since become one of the most copied drinks of the 2010s. It is a good test of whether you understand a sour: gin for the base, lemon for the sharpness, sugar to balance it, and a fistful of basil doing the job that bitters or liqueur does in other drinks.

The spec

Recipes vary a little from bar to bar. This is the common one, close to the version published by Difford's Guide, which credits Meyer's own blog post. Other sources use more lemon and a thinner syrup, so treat the numbers as a starting point and use the builder below to scale them.

Build it: scale the drink and change the strength

Method

Chill the glass first. Put the basil, stems and all, in the bottom of a shaker and muddle it: press and twist a few times so the leaves are bruised and wet, not pulped. Add the gin, lemon juice and syrup, fill the shaker with ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds. Fine strain (pour through the shaker strainer and a small tea strainer, so no green flecks get through) into the chilled glass, over ice if you like. Garnish with a sprig, slapped lightly against your hand first so it smells of basil when the glass reaches your nose.

"Better too much than not enough basil in this drink." — Jörg Meyer

Why it works

Underneath, this is a sour: a spirit, something sharp and something sweet, shaken with ice. Ice melts as you shake, adding roughly a quarter of the volume in water, which softens the gin and lets the lemon and basil show. That is why the drink tastes fresh rather than harsh at 60 ml of gin.

The basil is the unusual part. Its aroma comes from volatile oils, including compounds such as linalool and eugenol, which sit inside the leaf and escape when it is bruised. Muddling in the shaker, before the ice goes in, releases them into the sugar and lemon, and Meyer found it gives a greener drink than letting the shake do the work. Basil darkens fast once cut, so make the drink and drink it; do not batch it hours ahead.

Gin matters too. Meyer has suggested citrus-forward gins, since a very piney, juniper-heavy one can fight the basil. Any decent London dry works; you do not need an expensive bottle.

Variations, and a low or no version

Make it half and half: 30 ml gin and 30 ml of an alcohol-free spirit, which halves the alcohol and keeps the shape of the drink. For none at all, use 60 ml of an alcohol-free spirit, and check the syrup, because some alcohol-free spirits are sweeter than gin. A basil sugar syrup in place of plain syrup gives a deeper colour with less muddling, and a splash of soda in the glass stretches it into a longer, lighter drink.

One note on the name: the drink is said to be tiring to make, since you muddle every single serving, and it is nicknamed "Meyer's Curse" for that reason. Do not let that put you off at home. A small batch of four is still a small job, and the builder above scales the measures for you.

Drink in moderation. A full-strength Basil Smash is about 2.4 UK units of alcohol, so treat it as the one drink of the evening, and have water with it.