what is the best recipe for pimms?

I like:
1 part pimms
3 parts Knudsen Jamaican Lemonade or Reeds Ginger
mint, apple, cucumber, orange slice
on ice
Out of that salad bowl of garnishes I'd say the mint and cucumber are non-negotiable, orange and apple not as much.

i like:
one part beer.

no other parts.

I'd like to know this too - there's a wonderful bar in Melb called Madame Brussels, which has fake lawn and lawnchairs on the inside and oldfashioned garden furniture out on the rooftop terrace. They do some kind of Pimms in a jug thing and Ive no idea whats in it. I drank straight pimms with soda and it was kind of bland.

Pimms and 7UP are the only 2 ingredients anyone should ever need.

tracer, ask stacey. she makes the best pimms, without a doubt.

i should! i haven't seen her in like forever.

i think my main dilemma is whether to go with lemonade or ginger beer. they seem very different roads.

it's lemonade and some bits of green stuff

whoa ginger beer really? never heard that.

i could actually get on board with pimm's and ginger beer.

Ginger beer, ginger ale or lemonade are all OK (in that order) and also don't forget the measure of GIN for TurboPimms (Ed will back me on this). Your fruit should be: slices of orange and apple, strawberries and also CUCUMBER.

wot, no mint?

1 part pimms
1 part Gin
1 part lemonade
strawberries, cucumber, orange, lemon
borage
Mint

Leaving out the gin is a sin of epic proportions. Higg's recipe is so very very wrong.

Adding Gin is not turbo pimss it is PROPER pimms, this is very much non negotiable. Pimms is designed as a mixer (there are versions for gin, no.1, Brandy no. 4 and the rare vodka and whisky mixers)

borage is most necessary.

Ed '08

so what do you just throw all that in a jug and swirl it around?

strawberries, cucumber, etc - blerg. i guess lemon if you're being fancy.

Adding Gin is not turbo pimss it is PROPER pimms, this is very much non negotiable.

er, says who?!

It is a little known fact that one of the key duties of the knights of the garter is to prevent the monarch of the time being served a glass of pimms without a measure of gin and a sprig of borage in it. You can see them working as a cordon at royal garden parties.

kind of non-u to take style points from the royal fam...

It is ingrained in my genes as an english gentleman.

ed you know pimm's (no. 1) is already a gin-based spirit drink, right? so yr adding gin to gin...

mixed winter pimms with er diet coke and vodka, i think, last week. i don't remember how it tasted, due to the large amounts of alcohol already imbibed. but i would not recommend it.

Pimms No.1 is a gin based drink for mixing with gin, isn't it wonderful.

xpost Hmm. Is that in the Viking genes, Irish genes or the kosher genes? ;-)

I was unsure of mint/borage!

tbh pimms "by the book" could do with a little sumpin-sumpin added. cough syrup, maybe.

Tonic water rather than lemonade. Lemonade makes it far too sweet.

hence the green stuff

I'm with Nick Uptoeleven here, Pimms is surely the most overrated boozestuff going.

u mad

Lemonade only makes it too sweet if you use too much, shouldn't be more than a third or the drink. Any mixer with aspartame in it should be avoided at all costs. A half half lemonade/soda water mix works if it is too sweet.

Pimms only overated if over-diluted.

so, as already asked, do you just dump the whole stuff in a jar and swirl it? How do you cut up the cucumber and the mint? Should that stuff be floating in your drink or somehow filtered out? So many questions...

Ha, and there I was mixing gin and pimms on instinct, not knowing its the done thing! It worked well, but ho boy did I get smashed on it :(

Floating in the drink, diced, you should pick it out at the end, the cucumber especially. Mixing order should be

1)Jug
2)Fruit
3)Gin
4)Swirl
5)Pimms
5)Swirl
6)Lemonade
7)Swirl

Whoops, slip ice in after the fruit.

i'm tempted to respond to baaderonixx by borrowing from dan's banana bread recipe:

1. mix pimm's, lemonade, fruit, mint and ice together in a jug.
2. throw away.
3. get a beer.

but that's obnoxious so i won't.

I think Ed should make up a couple of jugs of his Pimms and watch the rest of us get schwasted.