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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-
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