Saturday, October 1, 2011

seersucker fizz

1 oz London Dry Gin (Beefeater)
1 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Apricot Liqueur (Rothman & Winter)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a Collins glass and top with 2 oz of soda water. Garnish with an orange twist and add a straw.

Wednesday last week, I was in the mood for a nightcap so I began to flip through Food & Wine: Cocktails 2011. There I spotted the Seersucker Fizz by Jim Romdall of Vessel in Seattle. Jim created the drink for a guest in a suit that informed him that the day was Seersucker Thursday. The holiday was started in the United States Senate in 1996 by Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi. The Senator wanted to bring some Southern charm to Washington, D.C., and to remind his fellow Congressmen of how they used to dress before air conditioning was invented in the 1950s. Therefore, on the second or third Thursday of June, it has become tradition for Congressmen and their staffers to wear seersucker suits to work.
The Seersucker Fizz started with an orange oil aroma from the garnish. The sip was crisp from the carbonation and citric acid, and it contained lemon and Punt e Mes' grape flavors as well. Next, the swallow presented the apricot and the drying forces of the gin's juniper and the Punt e Mes' bitter notes. Overall, the drink had a decent amount of complexity for an egg white Fizz which I attribute in a large part to the Punt e Mes.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

I'm slightly amused that this drink has gin as a base, as I tend not to think of gin and Southern charm in the sentence.

frederic said...

A Ramos Gin Fizz has a degree of Southern charm, and New Orleans isn't all that far from Senator Lott's home state of Mississippi.

Otherwise, just write it off as a neo-Yankee in Seattle being put on the spot to craft something with a warm weather clothing theme.