Recipe

• 2oz gin of choice
• Juice of half a lime
• Pinch of salt or saline solution (fancy name for salted water)
• Soda water

Combine everything with ice and stir well. Add in a lime wedge (with the peel) to allow more citrus oils to come through.

About

For those who love to imbibe on delicious cocktails more often than not, it can sometimes be quite the guilty pleasure as often even well made ones with quality liqueurs/amaro/fresh syrups/etc will be ridden with sugar. Well, put away your diet soda mixers and vodka-sodas/waters please – a cocktail without sugar CAN be delicious.

Such is the case in the classic Gin Rickey; there’s no sugar at all and it definitely holds its ground against its sweetened peers as one of THE most refreshing cocktails. Now, the topic no one wants to hear about: cocktail nutrition. How many calories are there in your beautiful drink? Let’s break it down.

All food that provide energy (aka calories) are composed of macronutrients at varying ratios. These macronutrients are protein, fat, carbohydrate…and alcohol. You’ll see the 1st 3 on nutrition labels, but alcohol is generally omitted since it’s not an “essential” dietary nutrient.

Fats are the most caloric dense, containing 9 calories per gram (this is why “high fat” foods get a bad rep – they pack more calories into smaller physical quantities), and protein and carbs both contain 4 calories per gram (so they are energy equivalents). Alcohol sits in the middle at 7 calories per gram.

So to calculate:

• 1oz of pure liquid alcohol is ~23.3g alcohol by mass.
• A 40% alcohol-by-volume gin will contain .4 * 23.3 = ~9.3g per oz (assuming the other 60% is water)
• 2oz of this thus has 2 * 9.3 = 18.6 grams of alcohol
• At 7 calories per gram, this comes out to 18.6 * 7 = 130 calories

When you add in sugar (which is a carb w/ 4 calories per gram) to the mix in the form of syrups and sweetened liqueurs, you can see the numbers add up. I won’t calculate how many calories are in your favorite cocktails and induce any unwarranted guilt, but you can do the math. But hey, life is meant to be enjoyed, so go have your drink and forget anything you just read. 😉 Cheers!