Ramos Gin Fizz
ClassicTen minutes of shaking for a cloud in a glass.
Creamy, citrusy, and floral. Gin's juniper threads through a soft tangle of lemon and lime, sweetened and smoothed by cream into something closer to a frozen custard than a fizz; orange flower water perfumes the top, and the soda lifts it all into a light, meringue-like foam. Rich yet astonishingly delicate.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Gin
- 0.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
- 0.5 oz Fresh Lime Juice
- 0.75 oz Simple Syrup
- 1 oz Heavy Cream
- 1 Egg White
- 3 drops Orange Flower Water
- Soda Water to top
Method
- 1
Add the gin, lemon juice, lime juice, simple syrup, cream, egg white, and orange flower water to a shaker without ice.
- 2
Dry-shake hard for at least a minute to emulsify.
- 3
Add ice and shake again — long and hard, several minutes if you can — until the drink is thick and cold.
- 4
Strain into a chilled highball glass with no ice and let it settle.
- 5
Slowly top with a splash of soda water to lift a soft meringue head above the rim.
The Story
Henry C. Ramos created his gin fizz in 1888 at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans, and it became so sought-after that his bar employed a line of "shaker boys" — as many as twenty at a time during Carnival — passing the tin down the row to achieve the drink's legendary, marathon shake. Prohibition scattered the recipe, but the drink survived as a New Orleans institution, still ordered as a test of a bartender's stamina. The reward for all that effort is a texture no other cocktail matches: a cold, pillowy, orange-blossom-scented cloud.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
