Why it works: Gin and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 127 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Creme De Menthe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Crush fresh mint with granulated sugar.
Add gin syrup and Jamaica finger.
Stir in sweet cream.
Shake and serve
Fill a glass half full with shaved ice and shake well.
While still in the shaker, add soda to nearly fill the glass and mix thoroughly.
Pour into a glass, add cherries, and serve with straws.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Gin + syruptop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + gintop 19% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together344 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mint
- Supplies the main aroma and fresh herbal flavour of the drink.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw oils out of the crushed mint.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and a softer, smoother body to the drink.
- Soda
- Adds carbonation, lightening the texture and making the drink fizzy.
The step that matters
Crush the mint gently. Crushing mint releases its aromatic oils, but pressing too hard tears the leaves and releases bitter, grassy compounds. Light bruising gives fragrance without bitterness.
Flavor stand-ins for the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, gin, syrup, cream):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Nutmegbetter flavor fit
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gin, syrup, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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