United States · Cocktail · Shaken

Ramos Gin Fizz

Gin, citrus, cream and egg white, shaken far longer than any other sour before the soda goes in.

Also calledNew Orleans Fizz
Not to be confused withGin Fizz (The plainer drink this one elaborates on, with no cream, egg white or orange flower water and a much shorter shake.)
StyleClassic
Methodshaken
Servedchilled
Strengthlow
Bitternessnone
DifficultyHard
A Ramos Gin Fizz in a tall Collins glass, its dense white foam head standing well above the rim
Ramos Gin Fizz at The Sazerac Bar.jpg by AGnias47
CC BY 4.0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.

A Ramos Gin Fizz in a tall Collins glass, its dense white foam head standing well above the rim

Serving

Drinks
1
Service
Units

Drink spec, per drink

Final volume~323ml
Strength~7.4% ABV
Pure alcohol19g
Std. drinks1.4US · 2.4 UK
Sugar11g · 34 g/L
Energy301kcal
Strong7.4% ABV
Sweet34 g/L
Sour0.56%
Bitternone

Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.

Dietvegetarian · gluten-free · nut-free · caffeine-freeAllergensdairy · egg

Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.

Ingredients

  • 15 ml fresh lemon juice
  • 15 ml fresh lime juice
  • 60 ml London dry gin40% ABV
  • 15 ml simple syrup
  • 2.7 ml orange flower water
  • 30 ml heavy cream
  • 1 white egg white (32 ml)
  • 60 ml soda water
  • ½ orange (70 g)

Glass

Collins400ml

323 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 400 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.

Method

6 steps · 3m 15s
  1. prep · 1m

    Squeeze the 15 ml fresh lemon juice and the 15 ml fresh lime juice and strain out the pips and pulp.

  2. make · 25s

    Combine the 60 ml London dry gin, the 15 ml fresh lemon juice, the 15 ml fresh lime juice, the 15 ml simple syrup, the 2.7 ml orange flower water, the 30 ml heavy cream and the 1 white egg white (32 ml) in a shaker, with no ice yet.

  3. make · 1m

    Shake hard for 1m with no ice. This is the step the drink is named for: the cream and egg white need that much time and force to build the dense foam that holds its shape in the glass.

    The dry shake here runs far longer than any other sour's: cream and egg white together need real time and force to whip into the dense, standing foam this drink is named for, and cutting the shake short is the single biggest reason a home-made version comes out thin.

  4. make · 20s

    Add cubed ice and shake again for 20s to chill the drink and finish the emulsion.

  5. make · 15s

    Fine strain up into a chilled Collins glass, with no ice in the glass itself.

  6. make · 15s

    Top with the 60 ml soda water, poured gently down the side of the glass so the foam rises above the rim rather than overflowing it, and serve at once.

Common pitfallAdding the soda before the shake, or shaking with it at all, beats the carbonation flat before the drink is even poured. It goes in only after the fizz is strained into the glass.

Keeping and make-ahead

Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.

About

A New Orleans fizz built around an extravagantly long shake, kept as a house secret for over three decades and once demanding twenty bartenders working in relay to keep pace with demand for it.

Henry C. Ramos created the drink at his Imperial Cabinet Saloon on Gravier Street in New Orleans in the late 1880s, where it was first served under the plainer name New Orleans Fizz 1. What set it apart from an ordinary gin fizz was the shake: cream, egg white and orange flower water on top of the usual gin, citrus and sugar demanded far longer than a standard sour to emulsify, and Ramos's own instruction called for a minimum of several minutes and as long as twelve 1 2.

No single bartender could keep that pace and serve a room. The saloon employed a relay of staff known as shaker boys, each taking a turn on the tin before passing it down the line, and by the Mardi Gras season of 1915 the Imperial Cabinet had dozens of them working at once and was still short of demand 1 2.

Ramos kept the exact recipe to himself for over thirty years. He published it in a New Orleans newspaper only as Prohibition approached in the late 1910s, reasoning that a drink nobody could legally serve was no longer a recipe worth guarding 1 2. The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans later trademarked the name in 1935 and kept the drink on its own menu from then on, including during Governor Huey Long's well-known attachment to it 1.

  1. 1Ramos Gin FizzWikipediaen.wikipedia.org
  2. 2Ramos Gin Fizz and Henry Carl Ramosneworleans.comneworleans.com