Why it works: Gin and cranberry work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 10 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the ingredients and shake them.
Fill the glass with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with cranberries.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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 + cranberrytop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Lemon + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cranberry + limetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together100 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cranberry + lemontop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together210 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Gin + limetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together115 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gin
- Provides the main spirit base and dry, botanical aroma of the drink.
- Cranberry juice
- Adds tartness, fruity flavour and a pink colour to the drink.
- Maraschino liqueur
- Adds sweetness and a subtle cherry-almond aroma that rounds out the sour citrus.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.
- Lime juice
- Adds further acidity and a fresh citrus aroma.
Flavor stand-ins for the cranberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gin, lemon, lime):
- Orangebetter flavor fit
- Cranberrythe original
- Raspberryabout as good a flavor fit
- Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against gin, lemon, lime. 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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