We love Gin in our house. And admittedly, Ryan and I skipped a few pages weeks ago in search of new ways to enjoy our Gin No.6 blend. But Spring has sprung here in Las Vegas and while that brings lovely flowers, it sucks for seasonally allergies đ With that, I had been tardy keeping up with the cocktail book this week and hope to catch up over the next couple days.
Page three of Mr. Boston’s 1935 edition welcomes in Gin with five Junipery drinks! First on the list is the Alabama Fizz. This cocktail is still in it’s original form in the 64th edition I have.
One of the largest cocktails to date, the Alabama Fizz is 1-1/2 ounces of Gin to 5-1/2 ounces of lemon juice and soda water. I expected this Fizz recipe to have egg whites like the Ramo’s but was surprised to see that it didn’t. After crafting this drink I understood the ‘Fizz’ in the name but was a little confused where Alabama came from until I realized the mint garnish must have been the monikers inspiration.
While quite lovely and refreshing to drink, the Alabama Fizz was a little boring. I thought that the 5Â ounces of soda water was too much and diluted the Gin and lemon juice more than necessary. As a fan of Southside and French 75 cocktails, the soda water killed the magic of lemon juice, mint and Gin.
To test my theory, I mixed up a modified version of the Alabama Fizz this evening to see if I enjoyed it more.
Instead of the called for powdered sugar, I opted for 2 teaspoons of granulated organic sugar and rather than garnish the drink with mint, I muddled 5 leaves with the sugar. I stirred in the juice of 1/2 of a lemon until all of the sugar granules had dissolved. Next went in the Gin. I kept this part the same, 1 jigger. Â I shook the mixture over ice and strained it into a smaller stemmed glass than the 7 ounce called for. Finally, I added 3 ounces of sparkling water, lightly stirred and garnished the drink with a sprig of mint.
As suspected, I liked this ratio of ingredients much better. The sparkling water added a slight fizz and toned down the acidity of the lemon juice while not watering down the Gin. This is a refreshing Spring afternoon drink with a final ABV of 15%. If you like Gin, you should definitely give this a go. I put the recipe up here if you’d like to check it out.
Up next is the Alaska Cocktail. In addition to Gin, this drink calls for an ingredient we haven’t purchased just yet, Yellow Chartreuse.
While we have a pretty eclectic bar thus far, we haven’t brought ourselves to plunk down $56 on a bottle of Yellow Chartreuse. Why you ask? Well, years ago we purchased an airline size bottle of the Green Chartreuse to give a go and as with some other liqueurs, it just wasn’t our cup of tea. So when the Yellow came up in the book, neither Ryan or I were overjoyed with needing to by it. With that, we’re hoping to make our way down to California in the weeks to come in search of a trial size bottle first. So, the Alaska Cocktail will have to wait for now. Stay tuned….