Southside

Be gentle when muddling mint, otherwise you’ll bring out bitterness instead of its sweetness and refreshing aroma.

Some people prefer to double strain the mixture to remove every bit of mint from the cocktail, lest it gets stuck on your teeth! Other people find that letting a few pieces in makes the cocktail look more appetizing and refreshing, not to mention that it indicates you used fresh mint leaves.

You can easily lengthen this drink by adding soda water or, if you’re in the mood for celebration, top it off with champagne. Alternatively, consider replacing the simple syrup with Luxardo Maraschino liqueur for a drier cocktail.

For those exploring gin, this cocktail serves as the next, natural progression after a Gin & Tonic and a Gin Sour. Take the Eastside (in Related Cocktails) as an example of how this recipe was pushed further and of how you might continue expanding on it. 

You can easily spruce up this cocktail by adding a touch of another liqueur – try it with Green Chartreuse, Elderflower Liqueur or Strega.

The Southside was created sometime around the early 20th century. There’s no indisputable evidence as to who or where it came to be. It’s very likely that the cocktail is a variation of the Mint Julep, which precedes it.

The Southside Fizz, a similar recipe but with the addition of soda water, was featured in Hugo Enslinn’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916, with a second edition in 1917). This was the last cocktail book published in the US before Prohibition.

A Gordon’s Southside also appears in a 1913 publication of Life Magazine, calling for the mixed drink to be served over crushed ice.

The Southside could also be a riff on a cocktail from the same era: a Major Bailey. It was served in Jack and Charlie’s Puncheon Club in New York. It’s the same recipe, but with split lime and lemon juice, and served over ice.

Finally, the name Southside is also in contention: It could refer to the Southside of Chicago, just as it could be referencing New York.

It might also be named as such because it was served in Snedecor’s Tavern, later renamed Southside Sportsman’s Club, in Long Island. This recipe hails from an era where cocktails were named after the place that served them, which would lend some credence to this story.