A Gin Fizz transfigured by cream and egg white, it carries a perfume of orange flower water and vanilla over a bright edge of lemon and lime, and a long, hard shake whips it into a silky, cloud-like body. A splash of soda lifts a meringue dome above the rim, and the drink comes across floral, citrusy and luxuriantly soft — brunch in a tall glass.
Shaken · Highball · Up
add
Combine gin, lime juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, cream, egg white, orange flower water, and vanilla extract in a shaker — everything except the soda water.
shake
Add ice and shake hard for about two minutes to chill and aerate.
strain
Double strain back into the shaker, discard the ice, and dry shake without ice for another minute to build the signature silky foam.
strain
Strain into a chilled highball glass, no ice.
top
Top slowly with a splash of soda water to lift the foam into a domed meringue cap above the rim.
Henry Charles "Carl" Ramos devised the drink in New Orleans in 1888, pouring it at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon — a venue also recorded as Meyer's Table d'Hôtel — under the name New Orleans Fizz before it came to carry his own. Its preparation became the stuff of lore: Ramos kept a relay of bartenders passing the tin along the bar, with each drink originally shaken for as long as twelve minutes. The cocktail now sits among the IBA's "Unforgettables," listed simply as the Ramos Fizz.