The Ramos Gin Fizz is a unique cocktail in the sense that people rarely ever rave about how it tastes. Rather, its reputation lies in its head-turning presentation — a result of its notoriously labor-intensive build. Traditionally, to achieve the Ramos’s signature head of foam that towers above the glass’s rim, the bartender must shake the cocktail for excruciatingly long stretches of time to ensure the full emulsification of the egg white and heavy cream. Accounts differ, but the process can take up to 15 minutes.
Legend has it that when bartender Henry Charles Ramos started serving the drink at New Orleans’ Imperial Cabinet Saloon in 1888, he employed a band of bartenders tasked solely with shaking the cocktail. According to Stanley Clisby Arthur’s 1938 book “Famous New Orleans Drinks And How to Mix‘em,” “the corps of busy shaker boys behind the bar was one of the sights of the town during Carnival, and in the 1915 Mardi Gras, 35 shaker boys nearly shook their arms off, but were still unable to keep up with demand.”
Although the cocktail’s popularity waned during the latter half of the 20th century, bars across the nation have been breathing new life into the Ramos in recent years. And the renaissance has proven to be a burden for many bartenders. Some have figured out ways to cut the drink’s prep time down to mere seconds, though these methods and hacks require some behind-the-scenes sorcery, which calls for high-tech equipment and time-consuming ingredient manipulation. As such, most bartenders do it the old-fashioned way, which means one round of Ramos Gin Fizzes can break up the flow of service and leave a staff member with a sore shoulder.
But if we choose to defy the laws of tradition, there is a way to build a faster — and, depending on flavor preferences, better — Ramo Gin Fizz with a simple ingredient swap. Ditch the heavy cream, and get a tub of full-fat, non-dairy Greek yogurt.
“When you’re making a Ramos, part of it is making a meringue,” Mason Picking, bartender at Brooklyn’s Eavesdrop and Ask For Janice, tells VinePair. “A lot of meringue recipes call for cream of tartar instead of heavy cream because the acid in it helps stabilize the egg white and prevent its proteins from coagulating. That helps keep the meringue from deflating or folding in on itself.”
Picking took the baking methodology and applied it to cocktails. But instead of reaching for cream of tartar, he went with Greek yogurt because… well, the guy likes Greek yogurt. “That was honestly the initial reason,” he says. “I was making this amaro meringue drink at the bar, and the Greek yogurt came into play because I realized I could use a lot less of it [compared to cream] and it wound up foaming up more than before.”
While he can’t speak on how well cream of tartar would work in cocktails, Picking points out that Greek yogurt has a higher acid content than heavy cream and it also contains a substantial amount of fat — both of which are essential to pulling off the Ramos’s soufflé-like head.
After hearing a fellow bartender complaining about how long a Ramos Gin Fizz takes to make, Picking brought in the Greek yogurt method to see if it would cut down on Ramos prep time. “I accidentally grabbed a nut-based yogurt,” he explains. “Weirdly enough, it made the head more stable, and it was way quicker to make in general. It was done in two and a half minutes, and I didn’t even have to chill the glass or anything.”
Picking admits that he’s not a chemist, so he’s not exactly sure why the plant-based yogurt worked better. However, considering the fact that such products often contain thickeners like vegetable oils and agar agar, it’s not a complete surprise that the finished Ramos yielded a more stable head.
“All you gotta do is add a little more than a bar spoon of Greek yogurt in place of heavy cream, whip shake with one Kold Draft cube, and then wet shake,” he says. “I find it’s more efficient than doing a dry shake at all, personally. But ultimately, the Greek yogurt allows you to go farther with fewer ingredients, it cuts down the shake time, and I think it gives the cocktail a nice tangy flavor that really complements the citrus and sugar.”
*Image retrieved from Nicole Kandi via stock.adobe.com
