state street cocktail

1 1/2 oz Unsweetened Pineapple Juice
1 Lemon Juiced (~1 1/2 oz)
1/2 Lime Juiced (~1/2 oz)
1 1/2 oz Dry Gin
1 Egg White
2 tsp Sugar

Mix sugar with juices until dissolved. Add rest of ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into highball or rocks glass.

After the egg yolk-containing Club Forest Cocktail, I started searching for a recipe to utilize the left over pair of egg whites. I wanted to end the evening with something light and refreshing so I toyed with the idea of making a Ramos Gin Fizz. I, therefore, grabbed for Stanley Clisby Arthur's Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Mix'em where I spotted the State Street Cocktail which distracted me from the Ramos. The State Street Cocktail reminded me a lot of Trader Vic's Hawaii Cocktail:

Hawaii Cocktail
• 3/4 oz Gin
• 3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 dash Orange Bitters
• 1/2 Egg White
Shake once without ice and again with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

I had never made Trader Vic's gin-based cocktail but knew about it through researching the Patrick Duffy's variation, the Hawaiian, which I had made with dark rum.

Arthur described the State Street as, "the author's favorite warm weather cocktail. He is fond of it in the winter time, too. In fact, he doesn't know any season when it fails to hit the spot." He provided the history of how his wife brought back a similar recipe, the Franco, which used tequila or mezcal as the base spirit. Arthur decided that a gin substitution and a renaming would improve the cocktail in a New Orleans sort of way.

The State Street Cocktail had a delightful pineapple nose and was very heavy on the juice flavor level with subtle gin notes on the swallow. The sugar balance was rather pleasant and provided a crisp pineapple taste; moreover, the egg white donated a frothy head and smooth component to the drink. Since the jigger of gin was somewhat lost in the mix whether through the egg white's flavor squashing or from the high juice to liquor ratio, a more vibrant liquor such as the original recipe's agave spirits might donate a more robust flavor profile. Indeed, the State Street Cocktail did hit the spot, but I could see the drink being a much bigger hit on a hot summer's day.