1 1/2 oz plum gin

1/2 oz st. germain

1/4 oz simple syrup

2 slices cucumber

muddle 1 slice cucumber, top with ice.  add ingredients and stir.  strain into a chilled martini shell and garnish with the other cucumber slice.

as you might guess from the name, this is a girly drink (it’s even pink, for cryin’ out loud).  the plum gin’s really gentle to begin with (the fruit takes a lot of the astringency out of the gin), and st. germain will brighten up anything you put it in.  the additional simple syrup helps with that, but the cucumber rescues it from being too insipid, cutting into all that sugar with a little vegetal bitterness.  in all i was pleased, as was the aforementioned friend’s girlfriend, who had three of them.