1938 Famous New Orleans Drinks and how to mix'em (3rd printing) by Stanley Clisby Arthur

Ramos Gin Fizz

1 tablespoon powdered sugar 3-4 drops orange flower water Vz lime—juice only Vz lemon—^juice only 1 jigger dry gin 1 white of egg 1 jigger rich milk or cream 1 squirt seltzer water 2 drops extract vanilla (optional)

Mix in a tall barglass in the order given; add crushed ice, not too fine as lumps are needed to whip up the froth of the egg white and cream. Use a long metal shaker and remember this is one drink which needs a long, steady shaking. Keep at it until the mixture gets body—"ropy" as some experienced barkeepers ex press it. When thoroughly shaken, strain into a tall thin glass for serving. This gin fizz long has been an institution in the city care forgot. The age of the Ramos gin fizz is well past the half-century mark and its popularity shows no signs of abating. In the good old days before the federal gov ernment was so prodigal with padlocks, the saloons of Henry C. Ramos were famous for the gin fizzes shaken up by a busy bevy of shaker boys. Visitors, not to men tion home folk, flocked in droves to the Ramos dis pensary to down the frothy draft that Ramos alone knew how to make to perfection. One poetical sipper eulo gized it thus: "It's like drinking a flower!" Exactly what went into the making of a Ramos gin fizz always has been more or less a secret. One thing is certain—only at the Ramos establishment could one get what tasted like a real gin fizz. Wherefore, like all suc cessful drinks, the Ramos fizz was widely imitated but never really duplicated. Possibly no other thirst assuag- Forty-four