Gin lengthened with lemon juice and ginger ale over ice, the Gin Buck drinks dry and prickly, with a bracing citrus snap cutting across the botanicals. The ginger ale adds a soft, sweetish warmth and a steady fizz that keeps it light and thirst-quenching, and a lemon wedge on the rim brightens every sip.
Garnish: Lemon Wedge
built · Collins · On the Rocks
build
Fill a Collins glass with ice cubes.
add
Pour the gin and lemon juice over the ice.
top
Top with chilled ginger ale and stir gently to combine.
garnish
Garnish with a lemon wedge.
No single inventor is on record: the Gin Buck belongs to the buck family, a loose group of drinks that pair a base spirit with citrus and ginger ale or ginger beer, and it also answers to the names British Buck and London Buck. Its name is usually explained as a play on the Horse's Neck, an older alcohol-free ginger ale drink — add a shot of spirit and the horse gets a kick, like a bucking horse. It became a staple of the Prohibition years and of British pubs, and its simple formula has since been reworked into mules and foghorns.