shadyside fizz

1 oz Blanco Tequila (Espolón)
1 oz Angostura Bitters
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
1 Egg White
Top with Sprite (Rieme Pink Grapefruit Sparkling Limonade)

Dry shake egg white and lime juice. Add rest of ingredients (save for soda) and ice; shake. Add 2 oz of soda to highball glass and strain shaker contents on top of this. Top with additional soda if needed, and garnish with 3 drops of Angostura Bitters and a straw.

On Tuesday night, I reached for the Rogue Beta Cocktails book to see which drinks we still have not made. One of the remaining that caught my eye was Mike Ryan's Shadyside Fizz that he created at the Violet Hour in Chicago. The reason we had not mixed this one before was that we never buy Sprite soda; however, we had a bottle of Rieme Pink Grapefruit Sparkling Limonade that we bought at Capone Foods, and it seemed like it would make a fair substitution.
The Angostura Bitters in the garnish as well as in the drink itself provided a pleasant allspice and clove aroma to the Fizz. While the sip was a spicy lime flavor, the swallow was a combination of agave spirit, Angostura Bitter's spice, and grapefruit from the soda. I was pretty impressed at how well the grapefruit soda and Angostura Bitters went together and I wonder if this would be the case in a lemon-lime soda as well. Moreover, I was a bit surprised at how submissive the tequila was in this drink; true, the flavor was present but it was hiding behind the Angostura and citrus notes.