Ramos Gin Fizz
Henry C. Ramos created this at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans in 1888, and by the Mardi Gras of 1915 his bar needed thirty-five shaker boys working in relay to keep up with it. That is the drink’s reputation in one statistic: it is built on a shake so long that no single pair of arms could finish one. Seven ingredients go in before the soda: gin, lemon, lime, sugar, egg white, cream and orange flower water. The egg white and the cream emulsify over the shake into a foam denser and more stable than any sour’s, and the soda, poured in after straining, lifts that foam into a white column standing above the rim. Orange flower water is where most versions fail. It is a distilled floral water, not orange bitters and not zest, and it is the only thing that reaches between the gin’s botanicals and the cream’s weight. Two or three drops make the drink. Leave it out and you have a cream fizz with gin in it.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: None
Ingredients
45ml
A London Dry with unmistakable juniper. There is a great deal of cream and egg white to be heard through, and a soft contemporary gin disappears into it entirely.
15ml
Squeezed to order. Half of the acid structure, and the acid is what stops the cream settling over the drink and burying everything underneath it.
15ml
The second citrus, and not a substitution for more lemon. Two acids together give a brighter, less linear sourness than either one carries alone.
30ml
Equal parts white sugar and warm water. The measure runs higher than a standard fizz because cream and egg white both mute sweetness as they emulsify.
30ml
The foam’s scaffolding. Dry shaken on its own for thirty seconds before anything else joins it, which is where the protein work happens most efficiently.
60ml
Full-fat double cream, and the fat is structural rather than a richness preference. Single cream cannot emulsify into the dense foam the drink is built around.
3 dashes
The defining aromatic and the ingredient most often left out of versions that fall short. Two or three drops. It is not orange bitters and not zest.
2 drops
Two drops, and the ingredient most often left out of a drink that is already famous for being difficult. It rounds the orange flower water off and stops the cream reading as merely rich, which is the difference between a Ramos that tastes composed and one that tastes like a milkshake with gin in it.
60ml
Well chilled, and poured into the glass rather than the shaker. Sent slowly down the inside wall it travels under the foam and pushes it above the rim.
Instructions
Chill a highball glass in the freezer and squeeze the lemon and lime immediately before building.
Dry shake the egg white alone, without ice, for 30 seconds.
Add the gin, lemon juice, lime juice, simple syrup, cream, orange flower water and vanilla extract to the same shaker.
Dry shake everything together, still without ice, for a further 60 seconds.
Add large cubed ice and shake hard and continuously for a minimum of five minutes.
Strain into the chilled highball glass, without ice.
Pour the chilled soda water slowly down the inside wall until the foam rises above the rim.
Serve immediately, without garnish.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification, listed as Ramos Fizz; method ours). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
The dry shake matters as much as the length of the wet one. Thirty seconds on the egg white alone, before anything else joins it, starts the protein work at its most efficient; adding the other ingredients at that stage only slows it down. Then a further minute dry with everything in, then five minutes minimum on ice, hard and without pausing. Chill the glass while you shake. The soda goes into the glass and not the shaker, poured slowly down the inside wall so it lifts the foam rather than breaking it, and the drink goes out the moment it is built. A Ramos left standing for two minutes is a different and much lesser drink.
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Henry Charles Ramos opened the Imperial Cabinet Saloon on Gravier Street in New Orleans in 1888, and later moved to the Stag Saloon on Carondelet. He was protective of the formula and immovable on the method: the shake could not be shortened.
To meet the demand he hired shaker boys, young men who worked the tins in relay so that no single pair of arms had to finish a drink, and at the Mardi Gras of 1915 the Stag needed thirty-five of them working at once. Ramos closed his bars when Prohibition reached Louisiana in 1919 rather than operate under it. The drink survived in print, and in the bars that reopened after repeal.
Why the Foam Is Different
An egg white sour carries a foam that sits on the surface and adds texture. This is a different structure entirely. Cream and egg white emulsify together over a long shake into something denser and integrated with the liquid rather than floating on it, and when the soda goes in afterwards it lifts that foam into a column standing proud of the rim and holding its shape for minutes.
Getting there takes three stages in order: egg white alone, dry, to start the proteins; everything together, still dry, to build volume without chilling it away; then ice and a long hard wet shake to finish the emulsion. Shorten any stage and the column collapses into ordinary froth.
Orange Flower Water
Orange flower water is made by steam-distilling the blossom of the bitter orange, Citrus aurantium, and it is a kitchen ingredient long before it is a bar one: pastries and confectionery across the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe.
Its character is floral with a faint citrus edge, and it has nothing in common with orange juice, zest or bitters beyond the tree they share. Here it is the bridge between the gin’s botanicals and the fat in the cream, occupying a register neither of them reaches alone. Two or three drops is the measure. More tips the whole thing into perfume; fewer and it cannot do the work.
Cream, and Why the Fat Matters
Full-fat double cream is not a richness preference here, it is structural. Single cream has too little fat to emulsify with the egg white in the way the foam depends on, and the result comes out thinner and less stable however long you shake it.
Sixty millilitres is the calibration, and it is a genuinely large pour for a drink this size: enough weight to give the Ramos its texture, and balanced by an equal volume of egg white rather than by restraint. The lemon and lime are the counterweight. Between them they carry more acid than a single citrus would, and that acid is what stops the cream settling over the drink and keeps the gin audible underneath it.
How to Serve It
Into a chilled highball, no ice, with the soda poured slowly down the inside wall so it travels under the foam and pushes it up rather than punching through it. No garnish: the white column above the rim is the presentation, and anything laid on top only interferes with it.
Serve it immediately. The foam is at its best in the first minute and merely good after five, and one that has stood while something else was made is a waste of the shake it took. Make them one at a time, and only for someone prepared to wait.
The Spirit
GinA flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Ramos Gin Fizz?
Gin, lemon, lime, sugar, egg white, cream and orange flower water, shaken very long and very hard, strained into a chilled highball and lengthened with soda so a column of foam rises above the rim. Henry C. Ramos, New Orleans, 1888.
How long does it actually need to be shaken?
Thirty seconds on the egg white alone, a further minute dry with everything else in, then a minimum of five minutes on ice. Ramos used relays of shaker boys for twelve. Five hard, unbroken minutes reaches the same foam.
Why orange flower water?
It is a distilled floral water, and the one thing that reaches between the gin’s botanicals and the weight of the cream. Orange bitters and zest are not substitutes; they sit in a different register altogether. Two or three drops, no more.
Can I use single cream?
No. The fat is doing structural work, emulsifying with the egg white into the dense foam the drink is built around, and single cream has too little of it. Use full-fat double cream and commit to the shake.
Master the Techniques
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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