IBA
South Side – IBA
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 20.3% ABV ∙
The South Side is a gin sour built with fresh lemon juice, mint, and sugar syrup, shaken and fine-strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Crisp lemon leads over a cool wash of mint, with the gin's juniper backbone and a silky, slightly frothy texture from the egg white.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake: London dry gin 60 mlLemon juice 30 mlSugar syrup 15 mlFresh mint leaves 6 pcsEgg white 5 ml
- Fine strain into the chilled cocktail glass
- Garnish with a mint sprig
- Note: If Egg white is used shake vigorously
Tips
- Shake vigorously and at length when using the egg white — it needs the extra agitation to build a stable foam before straining.
- Slap the mint sprig garnish before placing it to release its aroma right under the nose on the first sip.
- Fine-strain thoroughly to keep the shaken mint fragments out of the glass for a clean, silky finish.
History
The South Side is a Prohibition-era gin sour built with lemon juice, sugar, and mint, and its early history is genuinely contested rather than settled. The oldest known trace is a 1913 magazine mention of a "Gordon's South Side," a gin-and-lemon frappé served over crushed ice, and the first printed recipe under the name "South Side Fizz" appeared in Hugo Ensslin's Recipes for Mixed Drinks, a 1916 New York bartending manual, as a mint-flecked variant of a Gin Fizz.
Three rival origin stories persist. One traces the drink to the South Side Sportsmen's Club, a private Long Island hunting and fishing club of the 1890s, where a Mint Julep is said to have evolved into the new cocktail. Another credits Manhattan's speakeasy the 21 Club, which popularized the drink during Prohibition and is often called its house cocktail, though it more likely spread it than invented it. The most famous story ties the drink to Chicago's South Side and gangster Al Capone, holding that his gang doctored harsh bootleg gin with citrus, sugar, and mint while North Side rivals simply mixed theirs with ginger ale; this version is widely repeated but is undercut by the fact that the recipe was already in print while Capone was still a teenager living outside Chicago.
The drink's name is generally read as pointing either to the Chicago neighborhood or to the Long Island club, without a documented consensus on which. The International Bartenders Association added the South Side to its official New Era Drinks list in a 2020 revision.
FAQ
What is a South Side made of?
A South Side is made of London dry gin, fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and fresh mint, shaken and fine-strained; this build also includes a small amount of optional egg white for a silkier texture. It is served up in a chilled cocktail glass and garnished with a mint sprig.
What is a South Side?
The South Side is a gin-based sour brightened with fresh mint, shaken and fine-strained into a chilled cocktail glass. It comes in at about 20.3% ABV, making it a lighter, refreshing pour rather than a strong spirit-forward drink.
What does a South Side taste like?
It tastes bright and citrus-forward, with cool mint layered over the lemon and a clean gin backbone rather than any sweetness dominating. This build's optional egg white adds a soft, silky body without changing the citrus-mint flavor balance, giving it a smoother mouthfeel than a straight gin sour.
How does a South Side differ from a Mojito?
A South Side is shaken and served up in a cocktail glass, while a Mojito is built directly in a highball glass over ice and topped with soda water. Both use gin-family or rum spirits with mint and citrus, but the South Side is a shorter, all-shaken drink with no carbonation.
What's the difference between a Gimlet and a South Side?
A Gimlet is simply gin and lime juice, often with sugar syrup, shaken and served up, with no mint. A South Side adds fresh mint and uses lemon instead of lime, giving it a cooler, herbal edge the Gimlet does not have.
