ramos gin fizz

2 oz Old Tom Gin
1/2 Lemon (1 oz Lemon Juice)
1/2 Lime (1/2 oz Lime Juice)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2-3 dash Orange Flower Water
1 Egg White
1 1/2 oz Heavy Cream (Used Soy Milk)
1 tsp Superfine Sugar
2-4 oz Club Soda

Shake with ice for 5 minutes and strain into a highball glass. Top off with club soda and garnish with a lemon slice.

After getting back from my paintball tournament on Sunday and catching up on the interwebs, my ears perked up when I heard the sound of ice bouncing around a cocktail shaker three rooms away. The sound kept going longer than I expected a normal shake to go. And then it dawned on me -- Andrea was using the Hayman's Old Tom Gin we had bought the day before in a Ramos Gin Fizz. The Ramos is a drink that requires so much shaking that the Ramos' saloons hired shaker boys to take over this task from the bartenders for upwards of 15 minutes (according to legend and lore). After walking into the kitchen, just as in the later eras where bartenders would pass off the drink to the next bartender in succession to shake, I took my turn at the Boston shaker. I could easily see how the 5 minutes that we shook it for could seem like 15 especially if we were doing more than one of these.
The recipe Andrea was using came from Mittie Hellmich's book which is only slightly different from the ones in Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Mix'em and Imbibe!. We had never made them at home before and only once had them out when Eric Seed was in town showcasing his new Old Tom Gin and other products and Max at Deep Ellum made a Ramos and a few other drinks.

The Ramos Gin Fizz had a great orange blossom and lemon juice aroma to it. The citrus combined with the sweet creamy gin flavors was an amazing experience to drink. Andrea thought that it was not as decadent as the one Max made us due to using soy milk (all we lactards usually have in the house) instead of using cream. Andrea has also been pondering how to make one of these for our vegan friends especially after some pretentious cocktail snobs told her it could not be done -- period. Given that we have made French 75's and other champagne cocktails with beer amongst other wacky experimentation in drink not to mention in food, we shrugged off their disparaging comments. Besides the soy milk for cream substitution, in place of the egg she thought some blenderized avocado might work or perhaps a vegan egg replacer like Ener-G. Well, it's a project for another day.