Cocktails with Cucumber
Cucumber is a fresh, juicy fruit with a mild, cooling flavor, used in drinks as sliced flesh and as juice.
How it's used
Press slices gently, or juice the cucumber if a drink is built on it. The peel and the stem end carry a bitterness that hard muddling drags into the glass. It sits with gin, vodka, agave spirits, rum, mint and elderflower. A ribbon pressed against the inside of the glass keeps giving off aroma as the drink is drunk.
Substitutes for Cucumber
Honeydew melon
The same weight comes closest for freshness, though it is sweeter. Nothing bottled replaces both the water and the smell of fresh cucumber.
Cucumber vodka or gin (e.g., Hendrick's)
If the drink has a spirit, swap about 15 ml of it for a cucumber-led one.
Cucumber bitters
In an alcohol-free drink, two dashes add the smell, and the alcohol they bring is negligible.
Cucumber syrups and cordials
Each 10 ml adds about 6 g of sugar, as much as 7 ml of 2:1 syrup, so cut any other syrup by that much.
Pickled cucumber
Will not work. It adds salt and acid instead of fresh water and a green smell.
