About this episode

Jörg Meyer discusses the origins of the Gin Basil Smash and his experiences in the bar industry.

Jörg Meyer is the founder of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Hamburg, one of the most consistently recognised cocktail bars in the world and the birthplace of the Gin Basil Smash, a drink he created in 2008 that now accounts for upwards of 25,000 pours a year at Le Lion alone and has become one of the few genuine modern classics produced outside London and New York. In this episode we go deep on the full origin story of that drink: the Whiskey Smash he fell for at Pegu Club in New York, the G'Vine recipe booklet with a basil garnish that caught his eye, the batch of basil he borrowed from a restaurant warehouse next door, and the blog post on July 10th 2008 that set the whole thing in motion. We talk about the strange position of being a committed classicist who loves two-ingredient drinks and measures success in restraint... and yet being best known for a vivid green herb cocktail that outsells everything else on the menu by a considerable margin. Along the way we get into the surprisingly technical world of basil sourcing (500 kilograms a year, with quality varying dramatically by country of origin), why over-muddling produces a drink that tastes of chlorophyll rather than basil, and…

People in this episode

Host: Tristan Stephenson

Guest: Jörg Meyer

Topics covered

• cocktail culture
• bar industry
• gin cocktails
• cocktail history
• basil sourcing
• bar rankings

Keywords

• Gin Basil Smash
• cocktail bars
• Jörg Meyer
• Le Lion
• basil sourcing
• World's 50 Best Bars
• cocktail history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Le Lion, Pegu Club, G'Vine, Bar High Five, World's 50 Best Bars

Products: Gin Basil Smash

Places: Hamburg, Tokyo

More episodes of The Curious Bartender Podcast

• #87 Daniele Biondi - Indiana Jones of Rum, Clairin & Haiti, Viche & Colombia, Hampden, Velier, Luca Gargano · July 20, 2026 · 2h 17m
• #86 British Rum Special - Dropworks, Outlier, J. Gow: History, Production, GI, Tasting, Rum Market, Future of Rum, British vs. Caribbean · July 13, 2026 · 1h 47m
• #85 Dré Masso - 30 Years of Bartending, Creating Altos, Henry Besant, LAB Bar, Nusa Caña, Dick Bradsell, Potato Head · July 6, 2026 · 1h 52m
• #83 Bruce Russell - Wild Turkey, Rye, Barrels, Blending, Custodianship, Bourbon Glut, Jimmy Russell, Eddie Russell, Vintage Bourbon · June 22, 2026 · 1h 58m
• #82 Simon Ford - Ford's Gin, Plymouth Gin, 86 Co., Martinis, London, NYC, First Brand Ambassador, Tales of the Cocktail, · June 15, 2026 · 2h 15m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Curious Bartender Podcast podcast page.