Ramos Gin Fizz Recipe: New Orleans' Silky Classic

Ingredients

1½ oz London dry gin Old Tom is also traditionale.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
½ oz lime juice freshly squeezed
½ oz lemon juice freshly squeezed
1 oz simple syrup
2 oz cream heavy, well chilled
1 oz egg white about one egg white
3 dash orange flower water
2 drop vanilla extract (optional)
top up with soda water well chilled

Garnish: No garnish · Ice: Served up, no ice

Method

Add gin, citrus juices, syrup, cream, egg white, orange flower water and vanilla to a shaker.
Dry shake without ice for about 15 seconds.
Add ice and shake as hard and long as you can, at least 30 seconds, until the shaker is frosted.
Strain into a chilled highball glass and let it rest for a minute.
Slowly pour cold soda down the middle so the foam rises above the rim.

Watch it made

Ramos Gin Fizz

Taste

Light, creamy and airy with bright citrus, a floral hint of orange blossom and gentle sparkle. Low in strength for a classic.

History and origin

The Ramos Gin Fizz is one of the few classics with a clear origin. Henry Charles Ramos created it in New Orleans in 1888 at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon and later served it at his Stag saloon. The drink was so popular, and took so long to shake, that he was said to employ a line of bartenders who did nothing but shake fizzes during busy periods such as Mardi Gras.

Ramos, who disliked heavy drinking, closed his bar when Prohibition arrived and later allowed the recipe to be published. After repeal the drink became closely associated with the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. Today it is a standard of the city's bar culture and a favourite test of a bartender's patience.

Bartender tips

Chill the soda and the glass well; cold soda lifts the foam more firmly.
Pour a little soda into the empty shaker first to collect the remaining foam, then add it to the glass.
Orange flower water is strong: measure it drop by drop, too much tastes like soap.

Variations

Gin Fizz: The simpler relative without cream and orange flower water: gin, lemon, sugar and soda.
Silver Fizz: A gin fizz with egg white only, lighter than the Ramos.