Southside

About the Southside

Fresh mint, lemon juice, and simple syrup meet Timber Creek Florida Gin in the Southside, a shaken, fine strained cocktail that lands in a chilled coupe looking pale green and smelling of crushed mint. It is essentially a gin sour with a garden note, closer to a mojito’s cousin than a martini variation. The mint is what defines this drink’s identity, but it needs a gin with enough structure to carry that herbal brightness without disappearing under it.

Timber Creek’s Florida Gin, distilled grain-to-glass on the family farm in Crestview, has a clean grain base and restrained botanical profile that lets the mint and citrus lead while the gin still reads clearly in the background rather than vanishing into a green, sugary blur. To build the Southside, muddle the mint leaves gently at the bottom of a shaker (just enough to bruise them, not pulverize them), then add the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup with ice and shake hard. Fine strain into a chilled coupe to leave the mint fragments behind, resulting in a clean, silky texture rather than a leafy one.

It is a natural warm weather drink, well suited to a cucumber salad, goat cheese, or shrimp cocktail spread, and it also holds up next to something sweeter like lemon tart if you want to run it from starter through dessert. Grilled chicken rounds out a light summer meal alongside it nicely. A few extra mint leaves clipped and floated on top after straining can freshen the aroma right before the first sip, since the muddled mint inside the drink loses some of its punch once it has been strained away from the liquid.

Southside is also a forgiving cocktail to batch ahead of a small gathering; the mint-and-lemon base can be mixed a few hours in advance and kept cold, then shaken to order so each glass still gets a fresh foam and aroma right before serving. As always, sip and enjoy the Southside responsibly, and remember that a refreshing, low proof looking cocktail can still add up quickly.

Fresh mint, lemon juice, and simple syrup meet Timber Creek Florida Gin in the Southside, a shaken, fine strained cocktail that lands in a chilled coupe looking pale green and smelling of crushed mint. It is essentially a gin sour with a garden note, closer to a mojito’s cousin than a martini variation. The mint is what defines this drink’s identity, but it needs a gin with enough structure to carry that herbal brightness without disappearing under it.

Timber Creek’s Florida Gin, distilled grain-to-glass on the family farm in Crestview, has a clean grain base and restrained botanical profile that lets the mint and citrus lead while the gin still reads clearly in the background rather than vanishing into a green, sugary blur. To build the Southside, muddle the mint leaves gently at the bottom of a shaker (just enough to bruise them, not pulverize them), then add the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup with ice and shake hard. Fine strain into a chilled coupe to leave the mint fragments behind, resulting in a clean, silky texture rather than a leafy one.

It is a natural warm weather drink, well suited to a cucumber salad, goat cheese, or shrimp cocktail spread, and it also holds up next to something sweeter like lemon tart if you want to run it from starter through dessert. Grilled chicken rounds out a light summer meal alongside it nicely. A few extra mint leaves clipped and floated on top after straining can freshen the aroma right before the first sip, since the muddled mint inside the drink loses some of its punch once it has been strained away from the liquid.

Southside is also a forgiving cocktail to batch ahead of a small gathering; the mint-and-lemon base can be mixed a few hours in advance and kept cold, then shaken to order so each glass still gets a fresh foam and aroma right before serving. As always, sip and enjoy the Southside responsibly, and remember that a refreshing, low proof looking cocktail can still add up quickly.