Wild Hibiscus Fizz
I love fizzes. I am completely obsessed with fizzes. When I saw that the "official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail 2011" contest was to create a signature Ramos Gin Fizz I knew I had to enter. I've been saying for a couple of years now that I really believed over the next few summers hibiscus would become a dominant flavor in drinks, and I've absolutely been seeing a lot more of it recently. I've also been looking for a great excuse to use the Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup product, and this really seemed to fit the bill! I even have a photo of this one, though if I serve it on my menu this summer I'm going to serve it in our 12oz wine glasses, so it will look a bit different. The contest required only that you use the original formula as your base, and that you use at least one of the sponsor products (I used two--the Fee Brothers flower water, and the New Amsterdam gin). Some of the sponsor products included things like ginger ales, lemonades, etc., and you could use those in variations of the classic, but I really wanted to stay fairly true to the original.
Wild Hibiscus Fizz
Method: Shake and strain
Glassware: 12oz wine glass or 12oz Collins glass
Garnish: Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup flower "stem"
Ingredients:
1 egg white (dry shaken)
1.5oz New Amsterdam gin
.5oz Fresh lemon juice
.5 oz Fresh lime juice
1.5oz Simple syrup
.25oz Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup syrup
8 drops Fee Brothers Hibiscus Water
2oz Heavy cream
Instructions:
Separate egg white from yolk and dry-shake egg white. Add remaining ingredients and shake (...and shake...and shake...and shake some more) VERY well with ice (the old wive's tale around fizzes is that you're supposed to shake them for 15 minutes. Look up the history of the Ramos Gin Fizz...it's quite a lot of fun). Strain into glass and top with soda water. Garnish.
Garnish:
Take a flower from your Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup, a fruit pick, and two large-ish mint leaves. Poke the fruit pick through the back of the flower and then through the mint leaves to create the look of a flower stem. Settle the garnish on top of the drink.
Yay thanks for the cool links! Aaron keeps bugging me to start brewing beer haha. Also I was wondering what you think of infused liquor. It seems to be pretty popular around here... but also seems like a way to charge 8 dollars for something that normally costs 4.
ReplyDeleteInfused liquor absolutely has its place, and it helps simplify the process of mixing drinks in a similar way to syrups. They can give you a more concentrated flavor without using a lot of excess product. Given the time and product that goes into an infusion, the price tag isn't outrageous. If it's a house infusion they spend that extra double on the fruit or spices or whatever that they infused into the liquor--you spend that extra on the products and knowledge and time and effort that went into making it. That said, I don't typically go for drinks involving house-infused ingredients unless it's something really really unique. Pineapple or strawberry or cinnamon infused? Had it. That tomato soup/grilled cheese cocktail that I read about a week or two ago that infuses dark rum with a grilled cheese sandwich? Bring it on!
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