Ramos Gin Fizz
Gin, citrus, sugar, cream, egg white and orange-flower water, shaken for a very long time and topped with soda. Henry Ramos's 1888 New Orleans drink — a cloud in a glass.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Add the gin, lemon juice, lime juice, syrup, cream, egg white and orange-flower water to a shaker and dry shake without ice for a full minute.
Add ice and shake hard for another minute or more, until the tin is painfully cold and the mixture is thick.
Strain into a chilled collins glass with no ice.
Let it rest for a moment, then pour the soda slowly down the centre so the foam rises above the rim. Serve with a straw.
A thoughtful finish
- The long shake is the recipe. A minute dry, a minute with ice, minimum; the foam should be stiff enough that the soda lifts it into a head standing above the glass.
- Three drops of orange-flower water, not three dashes. It is the signature aroma and it is overpowering in quantity.
- Pour the soda after the drink has settled for thirty seconds; some bartenders pour it through a hole made in the foam with a straw.
Common mistakes
- A short shake. The foam collapses and the drink is a thin, creamy sour.
- Too much orange-flower water, which makes it taste of soap.
- Ice in the glass. It is served without, like every fizz.
A few good questions.
How long do you really have to shake it?
Ramos's shaker boys passed it for twelve minutes. Two minutes of hard shaking — one dry, one with ice — gets a modern home drink most of the way there; a blender or a milk frother for the dry stage is a known cheat.
What is orange-flower water?
A distillate of bitter orange blossoms, sold for pastry. It is the drink's perfume and is used in drops.
Why cream and egg white?
Together they make the dense, meringue-like foam that is the drink's whole character. Cream alone is thin; egg white alone is airy.
Can I make it without egg?
Aquafaba foams nearly as well. The cream is harder to replace; coconut cream makes a different drink.
Variations
- Gin Fizz — The plain fizz, without cream or egg.
- Golden Fizz — With egg yolk.
- Clover Club — Gin, lemon, raspberry and egg white.
- Sloe Gin Fizz — Sloe gin, lemon, sugar and soda.
Where it comes from
1888 · New Orleans · Henry C. Ramos · Imperial Cabinet Saloon
Henry Charles Ramos created his fizz in 1888 at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans, and it was so popular — and so laborious — that he employed a line of ‘shaker boys’ who passed each drink down the bar, each shaking it in turn, for a reported twelve minutes. In Mardi Gras of 1915 he had thirty-five of them working. He took the recipe with him when Prohibition closed the bar, released it in 1928, and the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans has served it ever since; Governor Huey Long famously brought a Roosevelt bartender to New York to teach the drink to the staff of his hotel. Modern bartenders shake it for a minute or two and get most of the way.
Sources
- Stanley Clisby Arthur, Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em, 1937 (book)
- David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2015 (book)
- The Roosevelt New Orleans, Sazerac Bar history, 1938 (archive)
Strength. About 1.47 US standard drinks at an estimated 10.4% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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