#3 PIMMS OF LONDON

This being one of the hottest summers on record in America, it seems like a great time to enjoy “Pimm’s and lemonade,” a favorite summer cocktail in England. You make it by combining three parts lemonade and one part Pimm’s No. 1 cup gin with mint and slices of cucumber, oranges, and strawberries. The drink has a honey-colored, iced tea appearance and looks great in a glass pitcher. It’s alcoholic without being as strong as a Long Island iced tea, although Adam has suggested an Irish version: Fill any size glass with lemonade; pour it out; then refill the glass with Pimm’s…

The drink has been around since about 1840, when Thomas Pimm began mixing fruit extracts with bitter gin in his London oyster bar to make it more palatable. Pimm’s No. 1 cup and various other varieties created by the company have enjoyed immense popularity ever since. Queen Elizabeth likes a good Pimm’s too—she just awarded The Pimms Company a Royal Warrant in 2011 as “Distillers and Compounders.”

I think this might be the first case I’ve found of a Royal Warrant being somewhat damaging. See, Pimm’s already had a longstanding reputation for being a drink enjoyed by the wealthy. Picture it being drunk at garden parties, at Oxford boat races, at polo matches, and by spectators on Center Court at Wimbledon. Oliver Thring argued in a blog post in The Guardian a couple of years ago that:

the drink now epitomises seasonal events featuring irritating rich people; trilbied fops in preposterous blazers; hawing women in silly hats; drunken trustafarians lounging on riverbanks; fans of Nigel Farage doorstepping ahead of European elections

(If you only understood about a third of that, you’re in good company).

Pimm’s has been trying for years to convince the English that No, no, no! This is a drink for the common man too! Take, for example, its silly slogan “It’s Pimm’s O’Clock!” and its recent advertisements that feature middle class people drinking it while barbequing and marching down a street in the kind of quiet English village you might see on a rerun of Changing Rooms, http://www.anyoneforpimms.com/past-and-present/. The Queen publicizing that she likes sipping it at one of her lavish summer homes isn’t really helping along an ad campaign aimed at the proletariat, you know?

Fortunately, in the U.S. “Pimm’s and lemonade” doesn’t have that kind of baggage because most people here have never even heard of it. A recent article in the New York Times argued differently, but I disagree with them (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/dining/the-pimms-cup-grows-in-popularity-as-a-summer-cocktail.html). When I did an informal poll of my friends, coworkers, and family members these past couple of weeks, only two had ever tried it—my friend Lev because he’d once had a British roommate and my friend Krysten because she’d studied abroad in London in college. If we Americans don’t know anything about the drink and have never tried it, the Pimms Company is just one catchy advertising slogan away from converting us to loyal consumers, right? Forget the Miller Genuine Draft and Two Buck Chuck—It’s Pimm’s O’Clock! The only problem is that their advertising seems nonexistent here.

I sent an email to customer service at the Pimm’s Company to ask why I never see any advertising for Pimm’s in the United States even though it’s readily available at most liquor stores. I received a response from a woman named Tammie who works for a company called Diageo, which apparently owns Pimm’s.

“While we appreciate your interest in Pimms, it is our policy not to provide proprietary information to external parties for private or commercial purposes,” Tammie wrote in her email. “Public information regarding our company and Pimms is available on our website: www.diageo.com. In regards to your comments about the advertising we will be more then [sic] glad to forward them to the appropriate department for there [sic] review. We apologize for any inconvenience this my [sic] cause.”

Oh brother. Who are these idiots? Is it any wonder they can’t figure out how to make Pimm’s popular in the United States?    

Luckily for you, I’m telling you about it now.

Where to buy: In Chicago I found Pimm’s at the Binny’s in my neighborhood, http://www.binnys.com/all/pimm's, and on the menu at English, http://www.englishchicago.com/drink/cocktails/. Remember that if you’re lucky enough to live in New Orleans or New York, the Times would have you believe they’re handing it out on the street corners there.