TL;DR: The morning after eating at seven tapas bars in one day, a 500ml goblet of muddled cucumber, lime, and gin is the only responsible choice.
There are days that exact payment for your own ambition, and the morning after eating at seven different tapas bars in Barcelona is one of them.
The itinerary had seemed reasonable the night before: El Xampagnet for anchovies and cava, Bar La Plata for botifarra and a vermouth that tastes nothing like Martini Rosso (they are correct to specify this), Quimet i Quimet for tinned mussels with caviar and tomato compote eaten standing in a room that fit perhaps twenty people, and then — in a sequence of decisions I maintain were excellent at the time — Tickets, the Adrià brothers’ circus of small plates, where I ate a suckling pig sandwich on mini ciabatta and concluded I was, professionally speaking, a serious person.
I was not a serious person. I was a man who had consumed the output of seven kitchens in a single afternoon and evening, and Barcelona, to her credit, let me believe otherwise until the following morning.
The day after, I found a bar somewhere in the sun, sat down, and stared into the void. I did not want tapas. I did not want cava. I did not want another anchovy as long as I lived, and I say this as someone who genuinely loves anchovies.
The waiter brought what I must have ordered: a glass the size of a small aquarium, packed with ice, with cucumber and lime muddled at the bottom and a pale, sparkling liquid that smelled like a garden had come to a sensible arrangement with gin. I held it for a moment. I drank it. I held it again.
By the second one, everything was fine. Not good — fine. The distinction matters.
This is the Spanish gin and tonic goblet — a format the Spanish take seriously and the rest of the world treats as a novelty, which is their problem. Here’s how to make it.
Cucumber Gin Cocktail
The Barcelona recovery drink. Muddled cucumber and lime, gin, and the gentle mercy of half-tonic, half-soda in a 500ml goblet. Make this the morning after anything.
Ingredients
- 5 cm cucumber
- 1 lime
- 200 ml tonic water
- 200 ml soda water
- 60 ml gin
Equipment
- muddler
- shaker
- Fine strainer (optional)
- Large goblet (500 ml)
Mise en place
- Place all ingredients and equipment on your work surface.
- Fill the glass — a large goblet (500 ml) or any big glass — with ice and water to chill it.
- Wash the cucumber skin with a brush and soap.
- Cut the cucumber into 1 cm cubes.
- Wash the skin of the lime with a brush and soap.
- Cut the lime into 8 pieces.
Method
- Put the cucumber and lime in the shaker.
- Muddle the cucumber and lime.
- Add the gin.
- Fill the shaker with ice.
- Shake for about 10 seconds.
- Empty the glass of its water and ice cubes.
- Pour from the shaker, through the fine strainer, into the glass.
- Fill the glass with half tonic water and half sparkling water.
Presentation
- Garnish the rim of the glass with a slice of lime.
Notes
A few things worth knowing.
On the cucumber: skin on. The skin holds most of the aromatic oils, and muddling with it gives the drink its particular green, vegetal edge. If your cucumber is waxed, scrub it properly — the recipe says soap and water and it means it.
On the gin: something botanical works beautifully here. Hendrick’s is the obvious choice and it’s obvious for a reason. Tanqueray No. Ten is slightly more citrus-forward and plays well with the lime. Avoid anything too juniper-heavy — it picks a fight with the cucumber and nobody wins.
On the half-tonic, half-soda split: the tonic adds a faint bitterness that keeps the drink from being merely refreshing. For a fully non-bitter version, go 100% soda water. Both are correct depending on the morning.
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