Cucumber Gin Cooler

Cucumber Gin Cooler, originally uploaded by essgee51.

Now that spring is finally here and summer's fast approaching, I'm moving from brown liquor to clear and researching crisp, cool drinks. This one, from Saveur, turned out well - light and refreshing, though I may fiddle a bit with the proportion of lime juice. The lightly pickled cukes are good to munch on once the drink's done.

For two:

• 4 oz. Hendricks
• 4 T lime juice
• 1/4 c Kirby cucumbers, thinly sliced
• tonic water

Fill two glasses about halfway with ice.

Put some ice, gin, lime juice and cucumber slices in a shaker with a small amount of ice. Shake vigorously for 1-2 minutes.

Pour into glasses, dividing the cucumber slices evenly. Top off with tonic water.