Drink - Victoria Moore finds the alternative to Pimm's
Published 03 June 2002
Anyone for Pimm's? Red vermouth is the perfect substitute, and tastier, too
I always know it when it comes. This time, I was in Dublin. We'd taken the Dart south and round the bay to Bray, and then walked the high coastal path through fields thick with yellow gorse, the sea glittering beneath us. By the time we arrived in the seaside town of Greystones, our cheeks were grazed red by the sun and wind. It was just warm enough, but only with the shelter of rock or wall and tendrils of sunshine licking at our faces, to sit outside. It was the first Pimm's day of the year.
Spotting it is as much of a delight as finding the first buds of lilac or tasting the first bundles of English asparagus. And the first glass of Pimm's drunk in late spring or early summer is always delicious. It is important to make it as perfectly as possible (mint and cucumber peel only: no soggy mess of fruit salad; and only cheap white lemonade will do - "real" yellow stuff is too strong-tasting) and not to force the timing. This is because pleasure will decrease exponentially with each glass taken until, by the third or fourth, it will taste just like Tizer and you won't be able to understand why you ever bothered with it.
None of the pubs in Greystones looked as if it might have either mint or cucumber, but I thought I might sacrifice these because the day was so perfect. As it turned out, the place we had chosen for its outside tables didn't have Pimm's either. So what to drink?
There is actually a perfect substitute, a horribly unfashionable stalwart of the bar that's much tastier than Pimm's and will take you all the way through summer without even beginning to pall. Red vermouth. Suppress that shudder.
While Pimm's is a secret cocktail of "gin, herbs, spices and fruit extracts", according to its makers, vermouth is what is known as an aromatised wine. This means a wine that has been infused with herbs (originally to mask the flavour of poor wines), which impart a slightly medicinal flavour, and fortified to around 17 per cent abv.
In the red version, the colour comes from caramelised sugar; hence the brackish appearance. The recipe is usually a closely guarded secret, though Cinzano Vermouth Rosso is said to contain marjoram, thyme and muscat yarrow among other flavourings.
My own bottle was originally bought for culinary and cocktail use only: red vermouth, along with Campari, is used in both the Americano and the Negroni, neither of which are too complicated to be made at home. Then I discovered that a viscous slug of dirty ruby-coloured alcohol tipped into a squat tumbler clattering with ice and a thick half-slice of orange or lemon, twisted to release the oils from the skin, proved an excellent induction to an evening's drinking. It is so good that friends nosing my drink while sipping on their own gin and tonics would ask to swap. Before long, the bottle was empty.
Then, one day, I tried it with tonic - and found my alternative to Pimm's and lemonade. Much drier, and with a great little kick, it is a very elegant daytime drink. Importantly, it is also one of the more difficult drinks for bartenders to screw up. This means it can be added to the disappointingly short list of drinks (Campari-soda, Campari-orange, gin gimlets) that you can safely order in pubs when you don't want beer. Although it may be advisable to stand guard and bark instructions while these are being made, at least all rely on usually available ingredients, unlike G&T (revolting when made with tonic from a hose).
So red vermouth and tonic is what I drank, sitting by the sea in Greystones. And it is what I shall be drinking whenever the sun comes out, unless an English garden in full bloom and a plate of smoked salmon sandwiches cause me to lose my head and beg for Pimm's.
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