RefreshingLightLow sugar
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Clean, cold and barely sweet — the drink to make when everything else on offer is sugary.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Serves
- 1
- Glass
- Highball
- Difficulty
- Easy
Ingredients
- 4 slices cucumber, plus a ribbon to garnish
- 6 mint leaves
- 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.5 oz simple syrup
- 3 oz soda water
- Pinch of salt
Method
- 1Muddle the cucumber slices gently in a shaker — press, don't pulverise.
- 2Add the mint, lime juice, simple syrup, salt and ice, then shake for 10 seconds.
- 3Double-strain into an ice-filled highball glass. The fine strain matters here; cucumber pulp ruins the texture.
- 4Top with soda water and garnish with a cucumber ribbon.
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Notes
- Double-straining is what separates this from a vegetal mess. Use a fine mesh strainer.
- The pinch of salt makes the cucumber taste more like itself — leave it out and the drink is flat.
- Swap the syrup for elderflower cordial for a floral version.
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Bitter, herbal and barely sweet — for people who don't want a sweet drink at all.
- Homemade Ginger Ale
Real ginger, lemon and soda. Once you've made it, the shop-bought kind tastes like sugar water.
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