Gin Rickey

T.S. Eliot began his landmark poem, The Waste Land, with the memorable line, "April is the cruelest month."

Eliot obviously never spent July or August in Washington, D.C.

Considering the hair-melting heat to be found in the nation's capital during summer's peak, it's not surprising that the city's primary contribution to mixology is the long, cooling drink known as the Rickey. As Jason Wilson wrote in the Washington Post, the combination of spirit (originally bourbon, but more commonly made with gin), lime juice, and soda water was named for Colonel Joe Rickey, a former Confederate soldier and longtime lobbyist. He is credited with first combining the ingredients sometime around the turn of the last century at Shoemaker's Bar, a Capitol Hill watering hole.

If you look at the gin Rickey and think it's nothing but a gin and tonic without tonic's bittersweet bite, you'd be mostly correct. Dismiss it as a G&T wannabe, however, and you're missing out on one of the great joys of summer. Refreshingly bubbly and pleasantly bitter, this Gilded Age cooler demonstrates how your great-grandparents made it through the summer alive.

With the summer heat once again at hand, the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild declared July as Rickey Month, and bartenders devised their own 21st century version of the venerable drink. Wilson took an extended crawl through participating establishments, experiencing rickeys ranging from a more-or-less classic version made with bourbon, ginger, and honey, to more off-the-wall modern-day versions such as one made with herb-infused shochu and yuzu juice.

I have yet to try another adventurous variation made with gin and a housemade black pepper & lime soda, but with the temperature in my own part of the country venturing into the hot and sticky realm, the timeless gin rickey seems mighty appealing.