Jerry Thomas's guide, 1876.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| ¾ oz · 22 ml | LEMON JUICE | |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | SIMPLE SYRUP | |
| 1 splash | EGG WHITE | |
| 3 oz · 90 ml | SODA WATER |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.5 oz mixed with ice, 0.8 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Shaken: +20 % of the pre-batch, +0.7 oz of water |
| Topped | Poured after the melt, kept whole: soda water 3 oz, no alcohol |
| Served | 3.5 + 0.7 + 3 = 7.2 oz in the glass, 0.8 oz of it alcohol |
| Strength | 0.8 ÷ 7.2 = 11.1 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.8 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 19 g · about 131 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
ALSO IN Negroni · Martini · Gimlet · Gin & Tonic · Aviation · Corpse Reviver #2 · French 75 · Bramble
FROM LEMON · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
ALSO IN Margarita · Mojito · Daiquiri · Whiskey Sour · Gimlet · Moscow Mule · Paper Plane · Aviation
Gin, lemon, sugar, egg white and soda. The dry shake builds the protein matrix, the wet shake chills and dilutes, and the soda pour inflates the foam into a crown. Alpha-pinene and citral delivered through a stabilized foam release slower and read more intense than a flat pour.
Henry C. Ramos opened the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans in 1888 and made his version, the Ramos Gin Fizz, famous by employing a relay of bartenders to shake it for a reputed twelve minutes, building a meringue-stable foam thick enough to stand a straw upright. The standard Gin Fizz is the same recipe minus the cream and orange-flower water that distinguish the Ramos. Huey Long had a New Orleans bartender teach it to a New York hotel bar in 1935. Modern dry-shake technique compresses Ramos's twelve minutes into thirty seconds of dry agitation.
