The summer or fruit cup is a quintessentially British drink, as synonymous with summer as strawberries and cream. It’s sipped in vast quantities at Wimbledon, Henley, Glyndebourne and in back gardens across the UK.
The summer cup is a Victorian invention - a gin-based punch mixed with liqueurs, fruit and botanicals. The best-known, of course, is Pimm’s No.1 Cup. The drink was invented in the 1840s century by James Pimm, the owner of an oyster bar in the City of London, as an aid to digestion. It consists of gin and a secret blend of herbs and liqueurs and is traditionally served with lemonade or ginger ale and garnished with cucumber, strawberries, orange and mint. Borage makes a rather delicious addition.
Many other Victorian establishments sold their own cups to patrons but Pimm’s began selling its wares commercially in the 1850s and soon dominated the market. New cups, based on other liqueurs, were introduced over the years. Pimm’s No. 2 Cup, for example, used whisky as its base sprit and the No. 3 Cup was based on brandy.
Pimm’s was hugely popular during the 1920s and 30s but experienced a period in the doldrums after the Second World War. It underwent a renaissance in the 1970s after being bought by international drinks giant Diageo and, seeing its rise popularity, many other manufacturers have followed suit. These days there is a wide range of summer cups on the market, some rather good and others barely distinguishable from cough mixture.
We like to make our own summer cup here at Muddled. It's still a work in progress which can be tweaked to suit individual tastes. Here's our recipe - we would advise making the syrup well ahead of time, as the mint and verbena really come through with a long infusion.
Muddled Summer Cup Recipe
First, make the sugar syrup:
100g sugar
100ml water
1/4 chopped cucumber
1 generous sprig of lemon verbena
2 generous sprigs of mint
Half an orange cut into pieces
Dissolve the sugar into the water over gentle heat. Add all other ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and infuse for as long as possible (preferably overnight). Strain.
50ml Gin
50ml Cointreau or Triple Sec
25ml Sweet Vermouth
2 tsp infused sugar syrup
2 generous dashes of orange bitters
Tonic water, lemonade, ginger ale or soda water (as preferred) to taste.
This last addition is a great way to adjust the sweetness to suit your palate - we usually plump for tonic as it gives a sharper finish.
Mix all the ingredients in a jug along with strawberries, orange slices, cucumber and bruised mint leaves.
Build individually over ice, topping the mix with fruit and something fizzy as suggested above, or scale up the recipe to make a large jug with plenty of ice for bigger gatherings.
You can keep your infused sugar syrup in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.
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