Gin Fizz Recipe: IBA Classic with Lemon and Soda

Ingredients

1½ oz London dry gine.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
1 oz lemon juice freshly squeezed
¼ oz simple syrup
2¾ oz soda water ice cold

Garnish: Lemon wheel · Ice: Served up, no ice

Method

Chill a fizz or small highball glass.
Shake gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup with ice for 12 to 15 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass without ice.
Top with cold soda water and garnish with a lemon wheel.

Watch it made

Gin Fizz

Taste

Sharp lemon and juniper, lightly sweet and very lively from the soda. Light, clean and refreshing.

History and origin

Fizzes appear in American bar guides from the 1870s onward and became a whole family of drinks: a spirit, citrus and sugar, shaken and topped with carbonated water. Unlike the Tom Collins, which is built long over ice, a classic fizz is served in a smaller glass without ice and drunk fairly quickly.

The Gin Fizz was hugely popular around 1900, and New Orleans gave it its most famous offshoot, the Ramos Gin Fizz, created by Henry C. Ramos in the 1880s with cream, egg white and orange flower water. Adding egg white to the basic recipe makes a Silver Fizz, a yolk a Golden Fizz. The IBA lists the Gin Fizz among its Unforgettables.

Bartender tips

Keep soda water in the fridge; warm soda loses its bubbles instantly.
Pour the soda in from a little height to create a short foam head.
For a Silver Fizz, add an egg white and dry shake first without ice.

Variations

Silver Fizz: Add one egg white, dry shake, then shake with ice for a silky foam.
Ramos Gin Fizz: Gin, lemon and lime, sugar, cream, egg white and orange flower water, shaken very long and topped with soda.
Tom Collins: Similar ingredients built long over ice in a Collins glass.