Fizz

What is a fizz?

A fizz is a sour with a sprint: shaken like a sour and then topped with a splash of soda, hence the name. The result is a short, foamy, refreshing drink, and the family is bigger than you think: the gin fizz, the sloe gin fizz and the golden fizz with a whole egg are the classics of the house.

The legend of Ramos

The most famous fizz in the world is the Ramos gin fizz from New Orleans: gin, lemon, lime, sugar, cream, egg white and orange flower water. The story goes that its inventor Henry Ramos had the drink shaken for minutes at a time and employed shaker boys who took turns. It remains one of the nicest legends of bar culture, nobody knows whether the times were truly that long, and as a clock for your own fizz it does not count. What is true: the drink demands a long, patient shake.

What makes a fizz

• First shaker, then sparkle: the emulsion is created in the shaker, the carbonation is added gently on top, and nothing gets swirled around after that
• Light instead of heavy: the soda opens the sour up and lightens it, and because dilution plays along, what our dilution entry says holds true here too: dilution is the ingredient, over-diluting is the mistake
• Still compact: the fizz stays a short drink, the bubbles are a finish, not the star

Distinction: fizz and Collins

Both are children of the sour, the difference lies in size and technique: a fizz gets shaken and only lightly touched with soda, a Collins gets built long in the glass and generously filled. You know the rhythm from our build entry, and the right glass is in our highball glass entry.

Remember: the sour is the formula, the fizz the sparkle, the Collins the length, the daisy the sweetness, the flip the silk, the smash the ice.

At our lounge

A fizz is the drink for the moment when it is warm outside and the evening is still young: freshly shaken, finely strained and topped with a proper sparkle. Let us know, we happily give the classic gin fizz its due.