Ingredients

Single Pitcher (6)Batch (12)

4 slices Cucumber - Unwaxed if you can find it, and cut thin
15 ml Spoons A tablespoon. Lime juice
25 ml Jigger The small side of a standard jigger, filled to the top: 25 ml, with 50 ml on the other side. Elderflower cordial
120 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 120 ml line. Soda water
1 ribbon Cucumber ribbon (optional)

Filed under 🥤 Mixers 🍋 Juices 🍯 Syrups 🍊 Fruit & veg 🍒 Garnishes

Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.

What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.

Quick version

Press the cucumber with the lime, add cordial and ice, then top with soda.

Method

Press the cucumber slices in the bottom of a highball glass with the lime juice - a gentle push, not a grind.
Add the elderflower cordial and fill the glass with ice.
Top with soda water and stir once, from the bottom, to bring the cucumber up.
Finish with a ribbon of cucumber down the inside of the glass.

Serve it

Glass: Highball
Garnish: Cucumber ribbon
Base: None

Cucumber Cooler

There is a family of drinks built on cucumber, elderflower and soda that has quietly replaced the gin and tonic in a lot of gardens, and it is not hard to see why - it is cold, floral and barely sweet, which is the description of almost nothing else in this book. The trick is to keep it savoury: cucumber is a vegetable, and the drink is best when it tastes like one.

Getting it right

Press the cucumber rather than crushing it; shredded cucumber goes cloudy and bitter in a way that a bruised slice does not. Elderflower cordial varies enormously in strength from brand to brand, so start with 25ml and add more only if the drink tastes thin. And use soda water rather than lemonade or tonic: the point of the drink is that it stays dry. A stalk of mint in the glass does no harm at all.

Tasting notes

Green, cool and delicately floral, with the lime holding the whole thing together. It is the drink to make for somebody who says they do not like sweet drinks.