frozen east side

2 oz Gin (Beefeater)
1 oz Simple Syrup
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1 handful Mint (12 leaf)
5 slice Cucumber

Blend with 6-8 oz ice (7 oz cracked ice) until smooth, pour into a chilled double old fashioned glass, and garnish with a cucumber slice and mint sprig.

Two Fridays ago, I was in the mood for a refreshing drink, and I recalled Natalie Jacob's Frozen East Side that she had recently posted on Instagram with a note to check her Arsenic & Old Lace blog for the recipe. In my write-up on the regular East Side, I described how the drink was attributed to Lynette Marrero in the mid-00s at the East Side Company which was one of Sasha Petraske's Milk & Honey offshoots. Technically, the East Side is the South Side with cucumber served up, and when it is presented on the rocks, it becomes the Old Maid. Here, Natalie chose not to create a third name for the blended version when she posted about it two years ago.
The Frozen East Side proffered mint and cucumber aromas mostly from the garnish. Next, lime and herbal notes on the sip led into gin and mint flavors on the swallow with a cucumber finish.