Limes
Juice & mixers · usually a modifier · in 21 cocktails here
What it is
As with lemons, fresh only. Limes give less juice than they look like they will — reckon on 25–30ml each.
What it tastes like
Sharper and more aromatic than lemon, with a faint bitterness in the oils that lemon does not have.
What it does in a drink
Souring agent, and the sharper of the two — it stands up to rum, tequila and cachaça where lemon would be lost.
Cocktails with limes
Unlocks 21 recipes on Drinki.
Best known
- Caipirinha IBA Muddle the lime with sugar in the glass. No shaker required.
- Cuba Libre IBA Rum and coke plus lime, which is the entire difference.
- Daiquiri IBA Rum, lime, sugar. Nothing else, and nothing missing.
- Dark ’n’ Stormy IBA Float the rum so the first sip is a storm cloud.
- Margarita IBA Salt on half the rim, so you get a choice with every sip.
- Moscow Mule IBA Copper mug optional. Cold ginger beer is not.
- Tommy’s Margarita IBA Agave instead of orange liqueur — cleaner, and the tequila actually speaks.
- Cosmopolitan IBA Unfairly maligned. Made properly it is a very good drink.
- Last Word IBA Four equal parts that should not work together, and absolutely do.
- Paloma IBA What Mexico actually drinks while tourists queue for margaritas.
- Southside IBA A mojito that went to a nicer school.
- Mai Tai IBA No pineapple juice. The real one is rum, lime, orange and almond.
- Mojito IBA Press the mint, do not shred it. Bruised mint tastes like a lawn.
- Planter’s Punch IBA One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak.
- Gimlet Sharper and colder than you remember.
- Ginger Lime Cooler The one to hand someone who is driving.
- Shirley Temple Named after the actor, who reportedly hated it.
- El Diablo Tequila and cassis is a stranger pairing than it has any right to be.
- Mezcal Margarita Same shape as a margarita, twice the personality.
- Virgin Mojito All of the ritual, none of the rum.
- Pornstar Martini Britain’s most-ordered cocktail. The prosecco goes beside it, not in it.
What it pairs with
The ingredients that turn up alongside limes far more often than chance would predict.
Substitutes
Nothing substitutes for limes convincingly.