Times and summer fruit cups are changing.

Once, as soon as the turnstiles opened at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, it became Pimm’s o’clock.

And everyone moved onto Summer Cup time.

But Pimm’s has begun to feel its age. Now, it’s the Rev. Hubert o’clock.

And Tapper’s time.

And Hydropathic Pudding o’clock.

Yet, as soon as the first foot fault is called and assuming our memories don’t last a year, every year still papers, magazines and websites reprint the story of Pimm’s.

How an Edinburgh theology student-turned-tenant-farmer invented his eponymous gin-based drink blended from quinine, other liqueurs, herbs, fruit peels and botanicals, wad as a health tonic and an aid for the digestion of shellfish at his oyster restaurants opposite Buckingham Palace , near The Old Bailey and around the corner from the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street.

And how the first bottle sold for three shillings in 1865. And was served in a pewter tankard called a No 1 Cup.

There’s hardly a mention of a vicar from Keighley who invented his own summer fruit cup.

Pimm’s was only trademark registered in 1912 , nearly forty years after his death.

Pimm’s used to be name on cultured lips in England in midsummer. The high society “quaff”, consumed through the summer season in the Stewards’ Enclosure on the banks of the Thames at the Royal Henley Regatta in Oxfordshire, in the fields around the country manor house of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in East Sussex and, of course, at Wimbledon, London SW1 where people go to be seen watching tennis.

It became perhaps the snootiest drink in the world. As well as the most hackneyed.

But it’s not exclusive as it once was.

Summer cups have been democratized.

Soon, it could be  Rev. Hubert’s and lemonade in pitchers. Wimbledon goers will start ordering “ A  punnet and Hubert’s , please.”

And society will toast a man of the cloth.

Not a fishmonger.

Born in 1868, Hubert Bell Lester discovered gin at Cambridge University. He became Reverend of Keighley but in contravention of the draconian Licensing Act of 1902, he distilled in secret in the middle of a wood with his beloved “Gertrude”. He was arrested and briefly imprisoned. But he couldn’t stop making his winter warmers and summer cups.

His great-grandson, Burford-based chartered surveyor Thomas Lester has revived the drink, the Revered Hubert’s Winter Liqueur (27% ABV) and, with a few modern tweaks, is closest to what the Reverend Hubert Bell Lester gave his Keighley congregation at Christmas at the beginning of the 20th century. His 20.1% ABV Summer Cup soon followed in the same style of bottle with a label design resembling a church window.

Says Thomas: “I sold the winter warmer to other parents on the school rugby touch lines and a few local pubs and restaurants. Sales went berserk and word of mouth created interest for weddings, parties and gifts. I was up at 4am, filling kilner jars. Hubert’s is all about the quintessentially English summer – boaters, fetes and cricket. All are on the bottle. Hubert was an old Harrovian.

“I developed a serious limoncello habit while on honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast. When I came back, I was in withdrawal. I couldn’t find a decent, non-synthetic one.  So, with the finest vodka and large juicy lemons from Amalfi, I set about making my own.  The results were obviously lemony, fragrant, slightly syrupy, and clear. Perfect for ending a summer’s day lunch.

“One day my aunt presented me with a beaten-up world war one hip flask with a barely legible label. It contained Reverend Hubert’s winter recipe. After a bit of research and a lot of trialling with a co-blender, drinks consultant, TV presenter and founder of “The Drink Coach UK” YouTube channel, Joe Wadsack, we re-created his summer cup with plums, cranberries and Cotswolds rather than Yorkshire rhubarb. And so have our own family bespoke Pimmsy-ish drink.

“Created to mark the coronation of Charles III, Lewis Johnson of the Fox and Pheasant pub in Chelsea, owned and lovingly restored by James Blunt no less, invented a special cocktail too.”

Ingredients:

  • 50 ml Reverend Hubert Summer Cup
  • 50 ml grapefruit juice
  • 25 ml elderflower cordial
  • 25 ml fresh lime juice.

Method:

  • Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with a generous amount of ice.
  • Shake like crazy, strain into a rocks glass or a jam jar if you’re feeling funky.
  • Serve with a slice of grapefruit, strawberries

Adds  Lester : “The Rev died in 1916 but I am sure he would have been tickled!”

Pimm’s stubbornly clings onto its reputation as the quintessentially English summertime drink, despite challenges from the Reverend  and Ableforth’s “Summer Fruit Cup” (which “screams tennis! Garden parties! Picnics. Sun-filled joy!”) made with vacuum-distilled fresh strawberries, cucumber, orange and mint blended them with Bathtub Gin, a mix of sweet Italian vermouths and a triple sec liqueur, plus herbs and spices.

And Tapper’s Hydropathic Pudding Summer Fruit Cup which uses a recipe going back to 1902.

Hydropathic Pudding was the Victorian name for summer puddings served to early health tourists to West Kirkby. Made in the Wirral near Liverpool, at 32% alc./vol., it is the strongest fruit cup on the UK market.

Says founder Dr Steve Tapril :  “ We infuse 7KG of Herefordshire-grown strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants to deliver vibrant fruity flavours that are balanced between the sweetness of the berries and the tartness of the currants

Sipsmith offers their “London Cup” – “ a sublimely sippable punch crafted from our award-winning London Dry Gin, infused with tea, borage, lemon verbena and a host of other botanicals. Inspired by the punches and cups of eighteenth century London, this is perfect for marrying with lemonade in the sun.” Fortnum and Mason has their own gin -based summer cocktail base.

So does Plymouth Gin – the UK’s oldest working distillery.

There are summer punch supermarket Pimm’s clones such as “Jeeves”, “Pitcher’s” and “Austin’s” punches traditionally contained  something strong, something weak, something sweet, something citrusy, and something spicy.

The first Pimm’s Bar opened at the Wimbledon tournament in 1971 and every year, well over 80,000 pints and 320,000 servings of Pimm’s cocktail are sold in a fortnight.  As well as Lansen’s Champagne and Stella Artois.

Imitation is the greatest and sincerest form of flattery.

And competition. Which is heating up.

Pimm’s time could be up.

There are Johnny-come-latelies  and   young pretenders to the title of the true drink of the British summer.

And of British culture and heatwaves.

And there is the Rev.Hubert.

It’s time for a change.