Gin Basil Smash

A shaker is useful, but a jam jar with a tightly fitting lid does the same job. Put the basil and lemon juice in the jar and muddle the leaves with the end of a wooden spoon. Add the gin, sugar syrup, and a generous scoop of ice, screw the lid on tightly, and shake for fifteen seconds. Pour the contents through a tea strainer into a glass with fresh ice. That strainer is important: without it, you end up with bits of leaf stuck between your teeth. A 50 cl jam jar is large enough for two drinks at once.

Choose a London Dry gin at 40 to 47 percent ABV. It has enough juniper and citrus to hold its own alongside the basil, and the higher alcohol carries the herbal aroma. A soft, floral gin or a pink flavored gin will disappear beneath the leaves and lemon juice. Gins with herbs such as rosemary, thyme, or cucumber work particularly well. In its early years, Le Lion served the drink with G'Vine and later switched to Rutte Celery Gin from Dordrecht, a gin with celery that enhances the green character. At home, any good London Dry works.

The IBA specifies Italian basil: the Genovese variety with large, soft leaves that you also use for pesto. One supermarket pot provides enough for three to four cocktails. Don't put the plant in the refrigerator, because below eight degrees, the leaves turn black within a day. On the windowsill, with a little water in the saucer, it will stay fresh for a week. Ten leaves may sound like a lot, but you need them for the bright green color and full aroma. Small leaves from the top count as half a leaf.

To make it alcohol-free, use the alcohol-free version of Gordon's or Tanqueray. Use 6 cl, 2 cl lemon juice, and 1.5 cl sugar syrup. Alcohol-free gin is thinner than real gin, so using slightly less syrup prevents the drink from tasting like lemonade. Muddle the basil just as in the original and shake with plenty of ice. A 3 cl splash of tonic on top gives it a little more length and a slight bitterness that makes up for the missing alcohol. Serve it in the same tumbler over ice, and it will look exactly like the real thing.

For six glasses, you need 36 cl gin, 13.5 cl lemon juice, 13.5 cl sugar syrup, and sixty basil leaves. If you don't want to muddle six times, blend the basil with the lemon juice and syrup for twenty seconds, then strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Mix it with the gin in a pitcher and chill. For every two glasses, briefly shake 21 cl of the mixture with ice and pour over fresh ice. Make the basil mixture no more than two hours in advance, because after that it loses its bright green color.

Three drinks with a green leaf, citrus, and sugar, yet they all taste different. The South Side combines mint with gin and lemon, is shaken vigorously, and served without ice in a coupe: drier and crisper. The Mojito pairs mint with white rum and lime, is often served over crushed ice, and gets soda water added, making it lighter and longer. The Gin Basil Smash is somewhere in between: gin as the base, but with basil that smells sweeter and more peppery than mint, served over regular ice. If you like a Mojito but want something less sweet, start here.