Who can resist a fizz? Delightfully frothy, with a crown of froth that feels each indulgent and light-weight, the Nineteenth-century hair-of-the-dog instructions the highlight on any bartop the place it seems.
The class’s hottest iteration is the Ramos Gin Fizz, which has been variously in comparison with “ingesting a flower” by one visitor (quoted in Well-known New Orleans Drinks and How you can Combine ’Em) and described as “probably the most aggravating cocktail within the historical past of bartending” by Louisiana bartender Mark Schettler, who has spent years perfecting his approach for the cocktail. It’s a crowd-pleaser that takes a bit of labor. However not all fizzes—primarily sours turned fizzy and frothy with soda water and an non-obligatory egg white—are as demanding because the Ramos, and the approachable template has impressed a spread of bartenders to experiment with the format.
Some, just like the Mid-Morning Fizz, add complexity to the traditional with modifiers like Chartreuse and orange blossom water, whereas others apply the Mr. Potato Head method to the drink by swapping out the fizz’s core parts. Within the Lefty’s Fizz, from San Francisco bartender Ryan Fitzgerald, smoky mezcal takes the place of gin, complemented by dry Curaçao and a grapefruit shrub for an additional citrus kick. Elsewhere, the Fizz Italiano from Los Angeles’ Lee Zaremba exchanges the template’s typical soda water for a bitter Italian soda, giving it an aperitivo bent.
Actually, the mashup of bitter Italian components with the fizz format appears to be a rising class all by itself, whether or not the drinks incorporate fernet (just like the cola-laced Fernet Ramos from Nashville’s Camille Razo), Campari and Montenegro (like Run the Julius from Columbus, Ohio’s Annie Williams Pierce) or Aperol (just like the Phantom Drift from San Francisco’s Alex Smith).
The evolving household tree of those cocktails is proof that the fizz has lasting attraction, even in its most famously arduous instance. “Simply go forward and shake it,” mentioned San Francisco’s Morgan Schick of the handbook nature of the Ramos. Ultimately, it’s price it: “It’s immensely satisfying to shake and shake and shake, and find yourself with this superbly textured drink.”
