Classic cocktails Gin Fiz and Ramos Gin Fiz in detail

To sip Gin Fizz or Ramos Fizz on a hot day, you have to enter a sepia-toned world. A world inhabited by slender, brown-eyed beauties, smelling of magnolias and the freshness of freshly washed linen. A world where tall mustachioed gentlemen scurry along the boardwalk, who never seem to work and will give you a thrashing if you ask them why. But first you need to learn how to make these two amazing classic cocktails!

In 1876, Jerry Thomas, a legend in the bar industry, wrote a short appendix to the bartenders’ guide How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion: The Original Cocktail Guide, which he published 14 years earlier. A lot can happen in 14 years. In the civil war, the Americans fought the Americans, the French fought the Prussians, the Paraguayans fought the Brazilians, the Japanese fought the whole world, and the whole world fought Mexico. Sasha sold Alaska, Lucien B. Smith invented barbed wire, Reis invented the telephone, Bell patented it, and Levi Strauss learned how to sew Levi’s jeans.

And somewhere in this crazy whirlwind, a certain philanthropist came up with Gene Phys. We know this because the simple yet flawless blend of gin, lemon juice, sugar and soda was one of the new drinks Thomas mentioned in the app (in total, there are 6 recipes for different physicals in the app). Perhaps it was he who invented this cocktail, but even if he was him, he would not have mentioned it, like any other bartender of that time (this is exactly the history of alcoholic drinks, where cloudy, foggy and damp weather prevails) . In any case, it was during those 14 years that a fundamentally new and one of the oldest types of mixed drinks was formed, which we today call “physes”.

Classic Gin Fizz recipe

Physical gin is very similar to Tom Collins, but there is some difference in the technology of preparation and often in the gin used (Old Tom gin is considered traditional for Tom Collins, while for physical the choice of gin is left to the discretion of the bartender, usually London dry) allows you to clearly share these two simple yet ingenious classic cocktails. In addition, Jerry Thomas in the first recipes for Gin Physa mentioned only three dashes of lemon juice, which, surrounded by the obligatory “fizz” (English fizz – “sizzle”, “foam”) created “Gin with soda”, while the juice of a small of lemon in Tom Collins’ first recipe formed a full fizzy lemonade gin.

The cocktail is included in the list of classic cocktails of the International Bartenders Association (IBA), category “Unforgettable”. The IBA advises to prepare it like this:

Variations on the theme of Gin Fiz:

• Silver fizz – with the addition of egg white
• Golden fizz – with the addition of egg yolk
• Royal fizz – with the addition of a whole egg
• Diamond fizz – sparkling wine instead of soda (French 75)
• Green fizz – with the addition of a dash of green Creme de Ment
• Purple fizz – with sloe gin and grapefruit juice

Recipe for the classic ramos fiz cocktail

If Sidecar is Jazz, Ramos Fiz is Ragtime. Of course, it’s from New Orleans – the cradle of jazz and all – but it originated in 1888, two years before Jelly Roll Morton joined us and thirteen years before the world heard the trumpet of the great Louis Armstrong. Like ragtime, Ramos gin fiz is a matter of balance, balance, delicacy. Do not mix it from what is at hand. Each of its components makes a significant contribution to the business. The egg white gives it body, the cream gives it a silky and smooth texture, and the citrus fruits keep it cool. Sugar tames citrus and lets it all blend together, gin does what gin is supposed to do, and soda wakes it all up. Orange blossom water is for the mystery…

The cocktail is included in the list of classic cocktails of the International Bartenders Association (IBA), category “Unforgettable”. We decided not to go in cycles in the IBA recommendations, but to offer David Wondrich’s recipe, as close as possible to the creator’s recipe. The proportions are given for London dry gin, but you can try making a cocktail with Old Tom, only the amount of sugar needs to be reduced. Do not try to replace orange water with orange liqueur or juice – it has a flavor that is not related to fruit at all.

The Ramos fizz, also known as Ramos gin fizz or New Orleans fizz, was created in 1888 by Henry Carl Ramos at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans, which he opened with by his brother Charles. Legend has it that due to the popularity of the drink, the Ramos had to hire a minimum of 20 bartenders (“shaker boys”) who non-stop mixed Ramos fiz, requiring 12-20 minutes of active whisking. Later, during Mardi Gras in 1915, the assembly line had to be expanded to 35 bartenders. And they barely kept up with demand.

In 1935, the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans, just a few blocks from the Imperial Cabinet Saloon, bought the rights to Ramos Gin from his son Henry. It was here that the cocktail gained worldwide fame, which was facilitated by Louisiana Senator Huey Pierce Long. In July 1935, he took bartender Sam Guarino from the Fairmont Hotel to New York’s New Yorker Hotel, where he assigned him to train the staff to prepare Ramos’ drink. And this is without any ulterior motives – Huey was in love with Ramos Fiz and did not want to part with him during trips to New York. From New York, of course, the drink spread throughout the world.

And the bartenders of the Sazerac bar at the Fairmont Hotel continue to this day proudly cooking the legendary physic and telling the story of the valiant Henry Ramos (by the way, he was a penultimate, 32nd degree Mason), “the benefactor of the human race.”

Variations on the theme “physical”

There are a lot of fizov and there are simply not many recipes for them. In view of the specifics of our resource, we decided to share only one of them, based on a drink made at home, namely thorn gin. In more popular versions, it is cooked without egg white, but then don’t count on a silky texture and dense body. Prepare this cocktail according to the proportions of the classic Gin Fiz, replacing the gin with the thorns gin and the lemon juice with the grapefruit, and you will get a real Violet Phys.

Other unusual physics for inspiration:

• Whiskey fizz – American blend, lemon juice, sugar and lemon-lime soda
• Manhattan cooler – scotch, lemon juice, sugar and lemon-lime soda
• Chicago fizz – rum, port, lemon juice, sugar and egg white
• Buck’s Fizz – champagne and orange juice, sometimes grenadine (akin to Mimosa)
• Japanese gin fizz – standard gin fizz with a serving of lychee liqueur
• Sour melon fizz – gin, lime juice, midori liqueur and ginger ale

Pophism?