Ramos Gin Fizz

A classic cocktail from 1888 New Orleans

Yet another classic, this time a "real" classic since it's from the 19th century and it's from New Orleans, which is also known for another classic, The Sazerac which is much boozier but coincidentally also makes use of muddled crystalized sugar to unlock the sweetness and bind it with the other ingredients. Or so I'm told. It definitely tastes better that way. Also in a Mojito.

But what makes the Ramos Gin Fizz so special is the way cream and citrus work together without curdling through the use of egg white as a binding agent. The process is of course called emulsification wherein two ingredients that don't want to play nicely together (think oil and water, or in this case lemon and milk). Look it up on Wikipedia it or listen to me stumble over my own tongue trying to explain it in my part 2 video below.

The most important part of the process for this cocktail is a dry shake, and a really long one. Like 2 minutes. The apocryphal legend says that it was so popular that the original bar that created it would employ a dozen strapping young men with gorilla arms to each shake for 1 minute and pass it to the next like an assembly line so that there would always be 1 available every minute instead of the ridiculous 12 minutes that they required to shake it. No, I don't mean gorilla arms as in the disgraceful right wing racist comments made about Michelle Obama, but rather in reference to the thick-headed weightlifting foreign born former Republican governor of California with a vaguely Nazi inspired accent. Yeah, I said it. Now you know more about my politics than you probably cared to know.

I also made 2 videos related to this cocktail. Part 1 is a discussion, tasting notes and distilling differences between the main types of gin. Part 2 shows you how to actually make the cocktail. You can skip Part 1 if you don't give a fuck about the details of gin and just watch part 2, or just skip to the recipe at the bottom in case you don't have 11 minutes to watch me screw things up but come out on top by the end.

Discussion and tasting of gin types

Actually making the cocktail

Ramos Gin Fizz

• 2 oz gin (should be Old Tom but others are fine too)

• 1 oz cream (or milk)

• 1 egg white

• 1-2 teaspoons sugar

• ½ oz lemon juice (fresh squeezed)

• ½ oz lime juice (fresh squeezed)

• 3 drops orange blossom water

• splash of seltzer

Muddle sugar with lemon/lime juice until the crystals are broken up and mostly dissolved. Dry shake all ingredients except for seltzer for 1-2 minutes or more. Then add ice and shake for another minute or more. The longer the better. That's what she said. Strain and pour straight up into a wine glass or large rocks glass. Splash of seltzer on top and additional drops of orange blossom water to taste.