THE CLASSIC RECIPE
The origin of the Flip can be traced to seventeenth-century England, where beer, rum, and sugar were combined and heated to create a warming winter drink. That concoction, not yet called a Flip, became popular in colonial America, where after a couple of centuries of evolution, a method developed that involved plunging a red-hot iron poker into the liquid, causing it to violently froth, or “flip,” thus christening the cocktail. Over time, the iron poker fell out of favor (thank goodness!), as did beer; the cocktail came to be served cold, not hot; and egg was introduced for reasons that remain historically murky. The end result is what today we refer to as a Flip—a drink comprised of booze, sugar, and whole egg, served cold.
Flip
2 ounces spirit or fortified wine
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1 whole egg
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
OUR ROOT RECIPE
We could say that we decided to use sherry as the core spirit in our root Flip recipe because it was a prominent ingredient in the nineteenth-century heyday of cocktails, as well as a common component of the earliest Flips—and that would be true. However, we also admit that Flips made with a base of fortified wine are our favorites, especially those built upon oloroso sherry. So for our root recipe, we’ve chosen a deeply complex oloroso sherry and matched it with a rich demerara syrup. The result is a cocktail that, while decadent, is also surprisingly light and frothy.
Our Ideal Flip
2 ounces González Byass Matusalem oloroso sherry
½ ounce Demerara Gum Syrup (this page)
1 whole egg
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a small white wine glass. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
STRIKE IT RICH
Nowhere in the cocktail universe is unabashed decadence celebrated more than with the Flip and its extended family. There are many drinks that flirt with richness, but the Flip is singular in its total disregard for sound nutrition. It’s dessert in a glass, often made with creamy ingredients and embracing flavors that have long been derided in fancy cocktail bars: sweet liqueurs with flavors such as chocolate, mint, and coffee. The Mudslide, the White Russian, the Grasshopper, and the Brandy Alexander—all are drinks that stem from the basic Flip. But in our opinion, those drinks aren’t any less deserving of study than the finest craft cocktails. Indeed, these rich drinks have a heritage that stretches deep into cocktail history.
Though a Flip cocktail may look elaborate, there’s nothing complicated about the recipe. It’s just a slug of sherry (or another spirit), some sweetener, and an egg. Shake it up, and dust it with a bit of grated nutmeg, and that’s it. The raisiny sherry offers dense fruit and woody flavors, demerara sugar creates a rich sweetness, and the egg, when shaken and emulsified, gives the drink its fatty, frothy texture. The way these three familiar ingredients commingle is like alchemy, creating something unique. This also makes it a launchpad for creativity. As just one example, add heavy cream to a Flip and it becomes a nog.
Flips have a reputation for being crude drinks in which richness and sugary sweetness overshadow the spirits. And while it’s true that Flips are often both rich and sweet, a balanced Flip is a thing of beauty: the core flavor of the spirit takes center stage, with the egg, sugar, and sometimes cream playing supporting roles. Where the Old-Fashioned and Martini are contemplative drinks, and the Daiquiri, Sidecar, and Highball are invigorating, the Flip is all comfort—a featherbed for the senses.
When we play with riffs on the Flip, we begin with the flavor of the core, be it fortified wine or spirit, and keep its strength and sweetness in mind as we consider how to balance it with sugar, egg, cream, or other ingredients in harmonious proportions. In the 1862 first edition of The Bar-Tender’s Guide: How to Mix Drinks, the godfather of modern mixology, Jerry Thomas, showcases myriad Flip recipes and variations. After setting the cold brandy Flip as the standard, he offers variations, both hot and cold, with substitutions of rum, gin, whiskey, port, sherry, and ale. In fact, those variations represent an early exploration along exactly the lines in this book: tweaking recipes to come up with balanced cocktails using different ingredients. Indeed, many Flip variations rely on the interplay between spirits or fortified wines and liqueurs and their affinity for rich ingredients.
FLIP ORTHODOXY
The defining traits of the Flip and its extended family of cocktails:
A Flip’s characteristic flavor arises from the combination of a core spirit or fortified wine and a rich ingredient.
A Flip is balanced by its rich ingredients, such as eggs, dairy, coconut milk, or dense liqueurs and syrups.
A Flip is seasoned with aromatic spices on top of the finished cocktail, a role that can also be played by a highly flavorful liqueur, such as amaro.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEMPLATE
The classic recipe for a Flip reflects a careful balance between the personality of the core, the sweetness of the sugar, and the fat and frothiness of the egg. The egg provides a relatively static contribution, and whatever the source of the sweetness, the amount is usually a matter of personal preference. So the base ingredient, be it a spirit or fortified wine, becomes the main component to consider. If a light, unaged spirit, such as vodka, gin, or unaged rum, is used, a Flip will be overwhelmingly boozy and out of balance because the proof of the alcohol, rather than its lighter flavor, is front and center. Unaged spirits with a stronger personality, such as mezcal, tequila, or eau-de-vie, may have enough body and personality to commingle with the egg, but even they will probably need to be tempered with a rich fortified wine, such as a sweet sherry or port, for the drink to have the ideal full flavor. Typically, an aged spirit is a much better fit. The vanilla and spice notes in an aged brandy or whiskey are exactly the kind of flavors that make a Flip round and full.
As for the amount of liquor, we feel that 2 full ounces of a strong spirit (a typical portion for a cocktail), mixed with just a bit of sugar and an egg, still tends to produce a noticeably boozy Flip, even when an aged spirit is used. Therefore, we often decrease the alcohol content of Flip-style drinks a bit, either by lowering the amount of high-proof alcohol to just 1½ ounces or by using a low-ABV ingredient.
The beauty of fortified wines in cocktails is that they’re highly flavorful and have enough proof to assert themselves but aren’t so boozy that they overwhelm. This is why they’re so great in Flips. The choice of which fortified wine to use in a Flip follows the same line of thought as for spirits: those that have a rich body from either years in oak or from added sweetness are the best bet. A light fortified wine, such as fino sherry, wouldn’t be robust enough to provide the dominant flavor. The perfect choice for a Flip is sherries such as amontillado, palo cortado, and oloroso, with their nutty and fruity flavors. Though these sherries are dry on their own, the fat from egg, along with an extra measure of sweetener, will allow their flavors to bloom in a satisfyingly decadent way. As a final touch, a grating of nutmeg on top of the cocktail will draw out the nut and spice flavors of the sherry.
THE CORE: FORTIFIED WINE
In chapter 2, we explored the wide world of vermouths: wines that have been both fortified and flavored with botanicals. In this chapter, we focus on unflavored fortified wines, a category that includes sherry, port, and madeira, among others. These wines are fundamental in our approach to making cocktails. They can act as the core spirit in a cocktail, creating the fundamental flavor profile, or they can be substituted for vermouth anytime it’s used as a modifier. Even a tiny bit of unflavored fortified wine can add subtle complexity to just about any drink—be it the briny minerality of a fino sherry or the stewed fruit flavor of a ruby port.
SHERRY
Cocktails and sherry have a long shared history. Sherry was used extensively in mixed drinks starting in the late nineteenth century, when it was as common a base ingredient as other spirits. In addition to sherry-based Flips, drinks like the Sherry Cobbler (this page) were stars of the era’s cocktail boom. Sherry’s popularity faded (along with that of other European wines) when vineyards were devastated by phylloxera (a rootstock-eating aphid) at the turn of the twentieth century. Add to that a lapse in production during World Wars I and II and American Prohibition, and sherry all but disappeared from the radar in the United States.
But now that high-quality sherry has made a triumphant comeback, it’s become a valuable ingredient in cocktails. We’ve found that each style of sherry can bring a host of interesting contributions to a drink: fino offers dryness and salinity; amontillado lends aroma and a beguilingly dry finish; oloroso contributes density and a raisiny flavor; and Pedro Ximénez has a juicy sweetness. Sherry can range from bone-dry to supersweet, the result of two differing methods of aging: biological and oxidative.
All sherry is aged in oak barrels, but in contrast to other wines, where casks are filled to the top to limit the influence of oxygen, sherry casks are filled only four-fifths full. This allows a layer of yeast, called flor, to develop on the young wines inside the cask, creating a protective barrier on top of the wine that prevents oxidation. Meanwhile, the flor feeds off of the sherry as it ages, consuming some components and contributing others, giving sherry its distinctive flavor and texture. This is called biological aging, and it produces the driest forms of sherry: fino and manzanilla. It’s also the first step in making amontillado and palo cortado sherries, which are subsequently aged in the presence of oxygen—in other words, they then undergo oxidative aging.
Other sherries never develop flor and are intentionally kept in casks with enough room for oxygen to interact with the sherry. Over time, the sherry oxidizes, developing nutty flavors, and as vapors evaporate out of the cask, the sherry becomes more concentrated. This is how richer sherries are made, such as oloroso and Pedro Ximénez.
Aside from biological and oxidative aging, sherries and a handful of other wines, such as port, are aged differently than most wines and spirits, using a process known as solera aging. While many wines, beers, and spirits are aged in barrels after distillation, then later bottled or blended (or even aged again in different casks), in solera systems, wines (and occasionally other spirits, such as rum or brandy) are aged by mixing multiple vintages in the same barrel, a process known as fractional aging. Solera systems were traditionally comprised of several stacked layers of barrels, with new wine being introduced into the top layer of barrels, and each layer beneath holding progressively older blends. Today, the barrels often aren’t stacked, but the process remains the same: Several times a year, some of the sherry from the oldest barrels (the solera for which the system is named) is bottled and replaced with the blend in the next-oldest barrels, which is in turn replenished by the blend in the next-oldest barrels, and so forth, with new wine, called sobretabla, being used to top off the uppermost barrels. None of the barrels is ever completely drained, and because of this, sherry from a solera can have trace amounts of extremely old wine, in some cases stretching back centuries. In addition to being very cool, this also produces wines that are amazingly consistent from year to year—a rarity in the wine industry.
HOW WE USE SHERRY IN COCKTAILS
We generally approach using sherry in cocktails in four ways:
As a simple substitution for a similar ingredient; for example, fino sherry in place of a dry vermouth, or oloroso sherry in place of a sweet vermouth.
As the drink’s sole base, building a cocktail’s flavor on the traits of a particular style or bottle of sherry.
As a split base, typically with slightly more sherry than spirit (1 or 1½ ounces sherry plus 1 ounce spirit)—a winning combination as a base for both citrusy and spirituous cocktails, as in the Fair Game (this page), La Valencia (this page), and Fuji Legend (this page).
In tiny, nearly imperceptible amounts as a seasoning, an approach that works especially well with salty finos or amontillados.
FINO AND MANZANILLA
On the driest end of the sherry spectrum is fino sherry, made from the first pressing of Palomino grapes and fortified to about 15% ABV with the addition of a grape-based spirit. The place of origin of a sherry has a profound impact on its flavor—so much so that finos made in the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda are labeled as manzanilla, a subcategory that recognizes the noticeably briny aroma and flavor of wines from this region.
In cocktails, the delicacy of a fino or manzanilla can be lost among more powerful ingredients, such as spirits, so we tend to use them either as a base in low-ABV cocktails like spritzes or Highballs, or as a complement to less-assertive spirits, like vodka or blanco tequila. In fact, we often use these sherries in tiny amounts, adding between 1 teaspoon and ½ ounce to cocktails to add a subtle saltiness and creamy yeastiness that can be just the trick to bind flavors together and amplify aroma, as in the Celebrate (this page).
Like vermouth, fino and manzanilla sherries are very fragile; once opened they will quickly oxidize, so they should be corked, stored in the refrigerator, and used within a week or so. They’re also meant to be drunk soon after they’re bottled, so look on the label for a bottling date and avoid any that are more than a couple years old. A fresh bottle will be vibrant and refreshing, whereas an older one will be dull and one-dimensional. If you ever see an open bottle of fino sherry on a back bar, run away.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
González Byass Tio Pepe Fino: An iconic brand with a long history, Tio Pepe is a benchmark fino sherry. Pop open a fresh, chilled bottle, and you’ll notice its pale hay color, aroma of fresh bread, and extremely dry flavor with just a hint of nuttiness. The personality of Tio Pepe is straightforward, making it a good utility player in cocktails.
Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla: Produced a short stroll from the ocean, La Gitana is our go-to manzanilla sherry. Dry, salty, mildly yeasty, and bread-like in flavor, it’s equally at home as the base of a cocktail or as a modifier.
Lustau Jarana Fino: The Lustau bodega produces large volumes of sherries in every style, and we’re huge fans, thanks to the consistency and presence of all of their bottles. Their Jarana is a textbook fino—a dry, yeasty wine with a subtle almond flavor. Lustau also produces La Iña fino, which has slightly more body than the Jarana.
EN RAMA SHERRIES
More and more, sherry producers are exporting something that has traditionally been meant for the locals: en rama (raw) sherry. In order to keep exported sherry fresher, it has typically been filtered to remove any sediment, but en rama finos are bottled with very little filtration, giving them a yeastier flavor and silkier texture. Because they’re less filtered, en rama sherries rapidly deteriorate even unopened, so getting the freshest bottle you can is key. We’ve tasted these straight from the cask in Jerez and in their bottled state here, and we can say that after only a couple of months, the flavor is significantly different. Unfortunately, quality en rama bottlings of finos and manzanillas are rarely available outside of Spain. We think it’s worth a trip to Spain to try them at their source. We’ll meet you there!
AMONTILLADO
Because amontillado sherries experience both biological and oxidative aging, they have all the benefits of the flor (dry and yeasty), as well as those of oxidation (concentrated aroma and flavor)—a confluence that gives them a noticeably nutty character. In addition to being some of the most pleasant wines to enjoy on their own (full disclosure: this book was largely written while consuming amontillado), they are also a valuable asset for cocktail making, being uniquely versatile thanks to their dry backbone and rich aroma. These sherries have a particularly strong affinity for aged spirits, especially bourbon and Cognac, with their nuttiness accentuating the characteristics of barrel aging (vanilla, baking spices).
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Barbadillo Príncipe Amontillado: While this bottle has the dried fruit aromas commonly associated with amontillados, its saltiness is always present, so it displays itself differently in cocktails than a Jerez amontillado, like Lustau’s Los Arcos, providing an additional layer of seasoning that can draw out flavors in a fantastic way. Because saltiness can both brighten citrus and curb bitterness, this sherry is useful for adjusting those flavors in cocktails.
Lustau Los Arcos Amontillado: About a decade ago, only a few sherries were widely available in the United States, largely because Americans didn’t know what to do with them. Then a handful of bar industry pros started putting quality sherries in front of bartenders—an act that profoundly changed the landscape of our cocktail making. This bottle was one of the first sherries to captivate our attention, and it continues to be a favorite. It has a rich nose but is surprisingly dry, with a distinct enough flavor to come through without tilting cocktails toward the sweet end of the spectrum.
PALO CORTADO
Palo cortado sherries are wrapped in mystical allure and prone to all sorts of marketing bluster. In the old days, every so often a cask meant to be a fino would suddenly lose its flor long before it was ready to evolve into an amontillado. If the sherry was of sufficient quality, it would be allowed to age in the presence of oxygen, eventually becoming a palo cortado. These days, many producers intentionally work to create palo cortados by steering finos in that direction.
While similar in many ways to amontillados, palo cortados have a richer aroma of coffee, along with slight molasses notes. And because they spend less time under flor, they have more of the raisiny aroma and flavor that you might expect from an oloroso (discussed on the next page), but with a dry finish. The easiest way to characterize palo cortados is that they smell like olorosos and taste like amontillados, which can be helpful in deciding how to use them. Importantly, because the key qualities of a palo cortado can be lost in a complicated cocktail, we often use it as the core to prevent it from being overpowered by ingredients with powerful flavors.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLE
Lustau Península Palo Cortado: Because they’re rarer than amontillado sherries, palo cortados are often more expensive. While many of our favorite producers offer impeccable palo cortados, Lustau’s is both reasonably priced and highly delicious. It gracefully teeters somewhere between the dryness of an amontillado and the richness of an oloroso, with a big dried fruit aroma and a deep, nutty flavor.
OLOROSO
Oloroso sherries lie on the richest end of the dry sherry spectrum. During production, wine—often from a second pressing of Palomino grapes (the first goes to fino production)—is added to a cask until it’s nearly full, then fortified to a slightly higher alcohol strength (17% ABV) to stave off the development of flor. It’s then aged in a solera system. Extensive contact with oxygen concentrates the liquid into a wine with a sweet nose, imbued with aromas of figs and raisins, but with a surprisingly dry backbone.
Because of their deeper personality, olorosos can be thought of much like sweet vermouth—minus the carefully layered spices, botanicals, bittering agents, and sweetener in the vermouth. So if you want to substitute an oloroso for sweet vermouth in a Manhattan variation, you’ll need to find a way to add those qualities back into the mix. Olorosos also have enough body to be the focus of a cocktail, and because they tend to have a powerful aroma and flavor, they have the strength to stand up to the density of cream in decadent cocktails—like the cocktail at the heart of this chapter: the Flip.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLE
Lustau Almacenista Pata de Gallina Oloroso: Lustau’s entry-level oloroso (the Don Nuño bottling) is a fine sherry, but for a bit more money (around $25), you should be able to find their Almacenista Pata de Gallina. Regarding the term almacenista, it translates to “warehouse keeper” and is applied to sherries sourced from small, family-owned soleras and distributed by larger houses, such as Lustau. This bottling is phenomenal, miraculously balancing a bone-dry finish with a broad body that’s chocolaty and spicy but not at all sweet.
SWEET SHERRIES
Sweet sherries are highly concentrated dessert wines made from Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel grapes. Pedro Ximénez is the sweetest style, made by first allowing the grapes to sun-dry until almost raisiny. As their moisture evaporates, sugars within the fruit become more concentrated, resulting in a highly viscous and naturally sweet wine. Fortified to halt further fermentation, the sherry is then aged in a solera system. This results in some of the sweetest wines in the world, defined by their ripe fig and date flavors. In cocktails, they should be used as you would a liqueur or sweetener. We often joke that Pedro Ximénez is nature’s finest simple syrup, and it’s true that an old bottle will be as dense and rich as any syrup we use in cocktails. Unlike syrups, however, it will add proof to the drink, so be mindful of the cocktail’s balance when making that kind of substitution.
Moscatel sherries are also quite sweet, but due to the aromatic properties of the Muscat of Alexandria grape from which they’re made, the resulting wine is not only dense but also has an intensely floral, perfume-like smell. Therefore, these sherries are best used in modest quantities to flavor a cocktail much like a floral liqueur.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
González Byass Noé Pedro Ximénez: With an average age of thirty years, this is an exceptionally intense bottle. The liquid is so reduced that it is noticeably viscous and has an unapologetically pungent flavor of raisins, figs, cinnamon, and anise. It’s generally too expensive to mix into cocktails in any quantity, but because of its intense depth of flavor, just 1 teaspoon can go a long way. Try it in place of the sweetener in an Old-Fashioned made with rum, and you will not be disappointed.
Lustau San Emilio Pedro Ximénez: True to the style, Lustau’s Pedro Ximénez is rich, sweet, and full-bodied. It smells and tastes of raisins, figs, nuts, molasses, and baking spices. The sweetness of the wine is balanced by a vibrant acidity, making it tasty and decadent on its own, as well as a good collaborator in cocktails, where it performs almost like a fruit liqueur, bringing a focused fruit personality, sweetness, and acidity. It balances beautifully with lemon juice, though we tend to use it in smaller doses (around ½ ounce), making up the difference with a syrup.
Lustau Emilín Moscatel: Lustau is one of the few bodegas that bottle a Moscatel, and this bottle is both affordable and widely available. Aged for eight years, it’s sweet and rich, with the characteristic aroma of dried fruits, especially prunes, and an orangey flavor.
CREAM SHERRY
In addition to the many styles of sherry described previous, there’s also a long tradition of blending multiple styles. The term for these is blends—which can be dry, sweet, or somewhere in between—is cream sherry, and although this category is often associated with inferior commercial bottlings meant for cooking, some cream sherries are dynamic, excellent, and extremely useful in cocktails.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
González Byass Matusalem Oloroso: This is probably the priciest bottle of all the sherries we recommend for cocktails, but it’s well worth the cost. Aged for an average of thirty years in a solera system (which means that it includes wines that are much older), the Matusalem is an odd mix of mostly Palomino grapes with some Pedro Ximénez grapes, making it technically a cream sherry, rather than a straight oloroso. It’s quite sweet but intensely complex, with dried fruit, coffee, and cacao notes and a soft acidity.
Lustau East India Solera: A blend of mostly oloroso with a little Pedro Ximénez, this sherry is aged for three years in a slightly warmer part of the bodega in an effort to mimic the effects of longer shipping times in the past: after months of jostling at sea and exposure to higher temperatures, the sherry took on a different flavor. Lustau’s modern-day warm aging enlivens the sherry with a woodsy bite, giving it added structure that works amazingly well in cocktails. It’s a great stand-in for sweet vermouth, especially as a counterpoint to aperitif liqueurs like Aperol and Campari.
Williams & Humbert Dry Sack: The flagship bottle from one of the sherry industry’s largest producers, Dry Sack can be found in almost every corner of the globe. A blend of amontillado, oloroso, and Pedro Ximénez sherries, it comes across much like an amontillado in aroma and flavor, with a slight rich undertone. When we can’t get our hands on amontillado, Dry Sack is a solid stand-in.
PORT
Port is a fortified wine from Portugal’s Douro Valley. One of the unique qualities of port is that it’s made from a blend of different types of Portuguese grapes. It’s typically a red wine, bottled and sold as either tawny, ruby, or vintage. (However, there are white and rosé ports out there, and they occasionally make their way into our cocktails.) The various grapes are usually harvested together and crushed in such a way that a great deal of color and flavor is extracted. When about half of the fermentable sugars have been consumed by yeast, the fortification process begins. A young grape brandy is added, raising the wine’s strength to at least 17.5% ABV and preserving some of the sweetness of the grapes.
The wine is generally left to settle in neutral tanks, then evaluated for its quality. The character of the wine determines how long it will be aged and how it’s categorized. Here’s a quick breakdown of red port styles that show up on labels:
• Ruby port: A nonvintage port aged in wood for at least two years.
• Vintage port: Aged for at least two years in barrels, then aged for years in bottles. Bottle aging softens the aggressive tannins of a young port, allowing the fruitiness of the wine to develop and get progressively more complex.
• Late-bottled vintage port: Aged longer in barrels than vintage port (four to six years), then bottled, and generally intended to be drunk younger than vintage port. Some producers use this term for wines that are fruity and youthful, while others use it for those that are woody and clearly aged in barrel for years.
• Tawny port: A blend of multiple vintages, not intended to be aged in bottle.
• Colheita port: Wine from a single year aged extensively in barrels, also not intended to be aged in the bottle.
Ports are generally robust wines high in tannins and added alcohol, making them good substitutes for sweet vermouth in Manhattan-style cocktails. Port also has enough character to stand as the core in any style of cocktail; however, because it tends to be relatively sweet, the other ingredients will probably need to be adjusted accordingly.
A young tawny port can lend a remarkable depth of character to cocktails while still tasting fresh and juicy, thanks to the blending of multiple vintages. Older tawnies bring more structure to cocktails and can collaborate with the strong flavors of, say, a single-malt scotch, as in the classic Chancellor (this page). We find that matching tawny ports with sweet vermouth accentuates the vermouth’s hidden juiciness. Mixing with a ruby port depends on the style you choose. A young ruby port will be fresh and full of berry flavors that mix well with citrus, but it will probably lack the structure to shine through in spirituous cocktails. For those, you’ll need to turn to a vintage or late-bottled vintage port.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Graham’s Six Grapes Ruby Port: The flavor of plums, raspberries, and blackberries is the first thing you’ll taste, but underneath is a structured wine that has coconut notes. If you can only stock one bottle of ruby-style port, make it this one.
Sandeman Ruby Port: Sandeman produces phenomenally consistent and affordable ports, including this commonly available ruby port. It tends to be a bit sweeter than the Graham’s, with a jammier flavor of bramble fruit (raspberry, blackberry).
Otima 10-Year Tawny Port: There’s something very gentle about this port. It’s aged just enough to develop a woodsy structure while still having fresh, vibrant berry flavors. Whereas older or denser ports can make a cocktail bland, the youthful Otima can be a complex contributor. We’re particularly fond of mixing it with French brandies, such Cognac or Calvados, in Manhattan-style cocktails.
MADEIRA
Madeira is categorized by age, ranging from rainwater (a minimum of three years in oak) to older expressions. For use in cocktails, we steer toward lighter styles, particularly the rainwater madeiras. With a sweetness that falls between the driest and second-driest madeira styles, they have a whisper of residual sugar that boosts other ingredients while adding a slightly fruity flavor. Rainwater madeira has an impressive ability to lighten cocktails without making them seem diluted.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Broadbent Rainwater Medium-Dry Madeira: Broadbent’s rainwater madeira is more complex than the Sandeman bottle described following. The aroma is more concentrated, with dried figs and a nutty note, but still characteristically light. The color is a dark copper tone, and it has a slight but noticeable sweetness combined with a bright, citrusy acidity. It reminds us of a tawny port in some ways—the influence of oak, its concentration, its relative dryness—but the unique flavor of the grapes used to make it shines through.
Sandeman Rainwater Madeira: Light-bodied, with a clean, nutty aroma and a crisp and complex taste, this bottle offers a great introduction to rainwater madeira. Because it has a light personality, it’s great for stretching out dense flavors, as in the Golden Boy (this page), where madeira is added to an Old-Fashioned made with Raisin-Infused Scotch (this page) to make the cocktail slightly less rigid.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE CORE
Of the Flip’s three components—spirit, sugar, egg—its spirituous core offers the greatest opportunity to play with the flavor. Indeed, the recipes in classic cocktail books indicate that a Flip can be made with nearly any fortified wine or spirit. While that’s certainly true in theory, in practice it brings some challenges.
Brandy Flip
CLASSIC
Our favorite version of the Flip is one made with sherry because of the wine’s nutty aroma and raisiny finish. Another popular variation is the classic Brandy Flip. For our ideal version of this drink, we first fine-tune the core, choosing the woodsy juiciness of Cognac, which works well with the fattiness of the egg. Then, although some recipes for this drink do call for a full 2 ounces of brandy, we think the brandy’s higher proof calls for dialing back on the spirits a bit: too much alcohol in a Flip and it just tastes like creamy hooch. Finally, we increase the amount of sweetener slightly to compensate for the oloroso sherry’s missing sweetness.
1½ ounces Cognac
¾ ounce Demerara Gum Syrup (this page)
1 whole egg
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
Coffee Cocktail
CLASSIC
According to Jerry Thomas’s 1887 Bar-Tender’s Guide, this cocktail’s name has nothing to do with its flavor (where’s the coffee, after all?), but rather its appearance: it looks like a cup of coffee. Lucky for us, cocktail naming has come a long way in the past 150 years. Regardless, the drink is a great example of how the Flip’s core can be split between a fortified wine and a spirit, marrying both the root, sherry-based Flip and the Brandy Flip preivous. Here, tawny port brings both a great deal of flavor and sweetness—requiring less syrup to balance—while the Cognac supports it with woodsy complexity.
1½ ounces tawny port
1 ounce Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
¼ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 whole egg
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
THE BALANCE: EGGS AND DAIRY
Eggs and dairy can bring unique flavors and textures to a cocktail, as well as impact the sweetness of a drink. Eggs bring both a fatty flavor (when using the whole egg or yolks), along with frothiness from the whites. Dairy has lots of flavor, and also brings sweetness and a frothy texture (when using high-fat cream). But these ingredients are also delicate and require careful attention to prepare well—and to avoid spoilage or curdling (see “Exploring Technique” on this page).
EGG
Without eggs, a Flip would just be a glass of sweetened spirit shaken with ice. The egg adds body and texture, balancing the alcohol to create a smooth and pleasant cocktail. Beyond the Flip and its variations, eggs can be used in cocktails in a variety of ways to transform both flavor and texture, from adding a light foamy head to making a cocktail rich and decadent.
There’s a lot of misinformation about egg safety. The largest risk of infection from raw eggs is a type of food poisoning caused by the bacteria Salmonella enterica, which can get into eggs in two ways: It can occur in undamaged eggs if the hen carries salmonella, as it can contaminate the interior of the egg before the shell is formed. But in this case, the amount of salmonella is likely to be very low, presenting little threat of illness. The second avenue for entry is via cracked or damaged shells.
Contrary to a somewhat common belief, the alcohol content in cocktails isn’t high enough to kill bacteria, nor is there any evidence to suggest that the acidity in citrus kills bacteria. We recommend that you buy the freshest possible eggs, ensuring that they are clean and without cracks, and then refrigerate until you’re ready to use them. Use them as soon as possible. The whites of fresh eggs will create stiff, strong foam that doesn’t dissipate quickly, and the yolks will contribute deep flavor, as opposed to a lackluster richness. We opt for organic eggs and, when possible, purchase them from a local farm.
Certain cocktails include egg whites to impart a silky texture to the drink. The most famous are fizzes and sours such as the Ramos Gin Fizz (this page) and the Pisco Sour (this page). Foamy egg white will also increase the volume of the drink, stretching out its flavors. This is a great way to temper bitter flavors such as Campari, or to tone down the tannins in a spirit infused with tea. Unfortunately, egg white cocktails are sometimes plagued by an aroma reminiscent of a wet dog, due to how quickly egg whites oxidize when exposed to air. This is largely why bartenders decorate the top of an egg cocktail with a dash of bitters, as in the Pisco Sour, or a grating of nutmeg or cinnamon to add a pleasant aroma.
Far fewer cocktails call for egg yolk on its own. Egg yolks contain far less water than whites but much more protein, fat, and vitamins, bringing a rich eggy flavor to drinks. They also contain lecithin, an effective emulsifier that can bond disparate ingredients, such as spirits and cream, to create a smooth, thick, uniform texture, as in the New York Flip (this page). Still, when the fattiness of the egg yolk is desired, recipes generally just call for the whole egg.
In fact, that’s probably the most common approach—and the one associated with the classic Flip—using an entire egg to take advantage of the contributions of both the white and the yolk. This produces drinks that are both foamy and flavorful. A handful of classic sour-style drinks use a whole egg, such as the old-school Royal Fizz, Flips, nogs, and their variations.
An unconventional way to use whole eggs is to infuse them with flavor while they’re still in their semipermeable shell. Place whole eggs in a sealed container with an aromatic ingredient, such as lavender, and the egg white will quickly absorb the aroma.
Our last tip when it comes to eggs: These cocktails generally need to be shaken longer than others, and they must be double strained.
DAIRY
Adding dairy to alcohol is an ancient way of making booze palatable, thanks to the richness of dairy and its lactic acid tang. When cream was first added to Flips, they became the creamy, rich cocktails now known as nogs.
While the term dairy can refer to the milk of any mammal, for cocktails we exclusively use cow’s milk in various forms, particularly those with a high fat content, such as heavy cream. We also occasionally use butter. We prefer heavy cream over half-and-half or whole milk not just because it’s rich (usually 35 to 40 percent fat) and perceived as sweet, but also because its higher fat content makes it less likely to curdle in the presence of acid. It’s also more effective at carrying flavors over the tongue. True, heavy cream is more caloric, but that’s precisely due to its higher fat content, which confers these desirable qualities.
Half-and-half, an equal mixture of cream and milk, usually has a fat content between 10 and 15 percent, whereas whole milk contains 3.5 percent fat. This makes half-and-half useful in certain cocktail applications, particularly in drinks that call for a significant amount of dairy, like the White Russian (this page). In these drinks, using half-and-half rather than cream keeps the dairy from overshadowing the other flavors or making the drink too heavy.
One of the most critical considerations when using dairy in drinks is the temperature of the cocktail: whether hot or cold, the drink should be constructed in such a way that it’s served at the ideal temperature, in a serving vessel that’s been chilled or heated as appropriate. Furthermore, the volume should be small enough that the temperature won’t change too much before the drink is finished. That means cold cocktails ought to be frosty and hot cocktails steaming—if dairy-based cocktails fall in the middle, they will be less than pleasant.
As with eggs, freshness and quality are key when using dairy products in cocktails. It makes sense that cows that are treated well and given a high-quality diet will produce milk that’s more nutritious and delicious. Therefore, we recommend using organic dairy products and, if possible, seeking out local dairies that take pride in making the best possible product.
Then, as for technique, shaken cocktails that contain dairy are best when shaken slightly longer than usual; this will produce a frothy, smooth texture. We also recommend double straining these cocktails to ensure that they have a smooth, uniform texture, without any pesky ice chips.
DAIRY ALTERNATIVES
So many people can’t or don’t consume dairy, whether due to lactose intolerance or allergies, potential health impacts, or concerns about the treatment of animals or the environmental impacts of dairy. Thankfully, there are dairy alternatives that can offer a similar texture. We prefer nut milks because nuts contain more oils than many of the ingredients used to make nondairy milks. Therefore, nut milks most closely mimic the texture of heavy cream and carry flavor over the tongue.
Though nut milks can be used in place of dairy in certain cocktails, they are often thin and therefore must be used in a greater proportion than milk. We also add a bit more sweetener to drinks made with nut milks to make up for their lack of body. An important consideration with nut milks is that they reflect the flavor of their source ingredient, and because of that they produce wildly different results in drinks. We tend to use almond milk most often. Its flavor is mild and works well with a wide spectrum of spirits and liqueurs. While there are plenty of store-bought options available, it’s easy to make nut milks at home. See our recipe for almond milk on the this page.
Almond Milk
600 grams sliced blanched almonds
7½ cups filtered water
In a blender, combine the almonds and water. Blend until very smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve with several layers of cheesecloth, leaving the liquid to drain out for 1 to 2 hours. Don’t press on the solids until the end of the process, when the pulp is mostly dry; this way, the pulp that accumulates at the bottom of the cheesecloth will further filter the milk.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE BALANCE
There are two different branches of Flip variations that work with the balance to forge very different paths: those that don’t contain dairy, and those that do. The second branch is further subdivided, containing some variations that include egg and some that don’t.
Eggnog
CLASSIC
Dairy is a natural companion to the richness of an egg. Either can contribute to the texture of a cocktail in a dramatic way, and when they’re combined the effect is amplified. Of course, Eggnog is the classic example. Though it’s typically made in large batches that involve a lot of work—preparing a custard base and then spiking it (as in the Tom and Jerry, on this page)—that isn’t always convenient, so we’ve come up with this single-serving version of Eggnog that can be made quickly and without much prep.
¾ ounce Plantation Barbados 5-year rum
¾ ounce Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
1 teaspoon Giffard Vanille de Madagascar
¾ ounce Cane Sugar Syrup (this page)
1 ounce heavy cream
1 whole egg
Garnish: Cinnamon and nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled Old-Fashioned glass. Garnish with a few grates of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Brandy Alexander
CLASSIC
One way to experiment with the balance in Flip-style drinks is to omit the egg and rely solely on the richness of cream. In fact, this style of cocktail is even more common and varied than egg-based drinks. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Alexander, which itself has many variations based on different core spirits. Our favorite is the classic Brandy Alexander, a mixture of brandy, crème de cacao, and heavy cream, where a rich liqueur serves as the sweetener. As in our take on the Brandy Flip (this page), we favor a rich Cognac in this drink. Note that because the cocktail has a slightly higher alcohol content, it must be shaken a bit longer so it will be diluted enough to fill a standard coupe.
1½ ounces Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
1 ounce Giffard white crème de cacao
1 ounce heavy cream
Garnish: Nutmeg
Shake all the ingredients with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
New York Flip
CLASSIC
Eggnog and other nogs have inspired a whole host of cocktails that incorporate both egg and cream. Some of these variations are called Flips, including the classic New York Flip, which takes inspiration from another classic: the New York Sour, a sour-style cocktail made with bourbon, lemon juice, and simple syrup, shaken and served in a coupe with a float of juicy red wine. The New York Flip is a more decadent articulation that replaces the lemon juice with heavy cream and an egg yolk: the same idea of a New York Sour expressed as a Flip with the bourbon and port as the connecting ingredients.
1 ounce Elijah Craig Small Batch bourbon
¾ ounce tawny port
¼ ounce simple syrup (this page)
¾ ounce heavy cream
1 egg yolk
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
Almond Orchard
DEVON TARBY, 2015
For those who don’t consume dairy or eggs, nut milks offer a similar creamy texture, along with unique flavor. The Almond Orchard is a soothing mix of a tea-infused young apple brandy and almond milk, spiked with a bit of lactic acid to ramp up the creaminess.
4¼ ounces Almond Milk (this page)
1½ ounces A Field in Innsbruck Tea–Infused Apple Brandy (this page)
¼ teaspoon Maraska maraschino liqueur
¾ ounce Demerara Gum Syrup (this page)
2 drops Lactic Acid Solution (this page)
1 drop Salt Solution (this page)
Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring frequently, until steaming but not simmering. Pour into a coffee mug, small wooden bowl, or large sake cup. No garnish.
THE SEASONING: AMARO
Though amaro doesn’t show up in the classic Flip—or even some of its variations—it can be a wonderful ingredient to explore when creating Flip-style drinks. This is largely inspired by the spice garnish that adorns the top of a classic Flip: the aroma of freshly ground nutmeg perfumes the cocktail, but it also flavors the drink with each sip. Packed with spices and bitterness, amaro can serve the same purpose in a cocktail. So while amaro does not appear in the classic or root recipes at the beginning of this chapter, we hope the information here will help you take the Flip in new directions.
It’s easy to categorize most types of alcohol, from spirits to liqueurs to wine. In any given category, similarities in ingredients, regional styles, and methods of production have a huge bearing on the booze’s personality. But there is type of spirit that largely defies attempts at categorization: amaro.
Amaro (amari in the plural) takes its name from the Italian word for bitter. That hints at what to expect from them in flavor, but any similarities among amari generally stop there. Most are made by macerating herbs, barks, roots, flowers, citrus, and other botanicals in an alcoholic base (the strength and nature of which can vary, though usually neutral grain alcohol) to extract flavor. The spirit is then sweetened, and sometimes aged. The resulting spirits are as versatile as they are difficult to categorize. Are they all bitter? Mostly. Are they all sweet? Well, no, not really. Are they all unique? Without question. If we were pressed to define them, we’d have to simply say that an amaro is a bittersweet liqueur.
There are no universal regulations for the production or classification of amari, nor is there even much consensus (within Italy or beyond) on how they should be consumed. For our own purposes, we divide the ever-increasing options into groupings that reflect where they fall on the bitter and sweet spectrums and therefore indicate how particular bottles are likely to work in a cocktail: aperitivi, light amari, medium amari, and dense amari. Given how diverse they are, there are no hard-and-fast rules about how to use them in cocktails, but this is part of what makes them such a valuable addition to cocktails: they can play many roles, from seasoning and adding complexity to accenting a spirit or fortified wine to being at center stage as the core flavor.
APERITIVI
At the lightest end of the spectrum are aperitivo bitters, or aperitivi. In Italy, aperitivo is a term associated with leisurely before-meal drinking, when a low-alcohol beverage that’s slightly bitter and relatively dry is served to stimulate the appetite. Aperitivi are the stars of many such cocktails, often in combination with seltzer or prosecco in a Highball or spritz.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Aperol: At 11% ABV, Aperol is the lightest of all aperitivi bitters. It smells of fresh oranges and rhubarb and has a light flavor with a mild bitter undertone. We love Aperol for its versatility: it can be used in tiny amounts to boost the bitterness of grapefruit juice or grapefruit liqueur, as part of a split base, or even more refreshingly as the star of a drink. Though Aperol can work well in spirituous cocktails, especially Martini variations, we most often use it in citrusy cocktails like the classic Aperol Spritz (this page) and other spritzes, and as a seasoning for sours, as in the High Five (this page).
Campari: Oh, Campari, you are the wind beneath every bartender’s wings. Without you, we wouldn’t have the Negroni, and a world without Negronis wouldn’t be a world worth living in. At 24% ABV, Campari sits smack in the middle of our recommended bottles for aperitivi, being fairly moderate in content, sweetness, and bitterness. This makes it well suited for many cocktail applications: light enough to use in larger quantities, yet strong enough to have a presence when used in small amounts. With a dark, ruby-red color and bright, floral orange flavor, Campari mixed with seltzer makes for a delicious and gorgeous Highball. It also works well in both citrusy drinks and spirituous cocktails.
Suze: The French also have a long tradition of making bitter liqueurs. We often think of Suze as French Campari, and while that comparison is simplistic, we tend to use it in similar ways. Suze is earthy, sweet, and citrusy, with a light body and bright yellow color. At 20% ABV, it’s mild enough to mix into low-alcohol, citrusy cocktails, but it also has a strong personality that works well in spirituous cocktails—specifically Martini variations like the White Negroni (this page)—thanks to gentian root, the ingredient that makes many amari bitter.
LIGHT AMARI
As mentioned, we categorize amari as light, medium, or dense depending on their alcohol content, intensity of flavor, and bitterness. The following recommended bottles of light amari balance a light sweetness with a pleasant bitterness, making them versatile cocktail ingredients—light enough to use as part of a split base in either citrusy or boozy cocktails, but with a presence that allows them to be used in smaller quantities to accent a core spirit much as a fruit or herbal liqueur might be used.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Amaro Meletti: At 32% ABV, Meletti has a noticeably punchy aroma of cinnamon and orange and lemon peels, with a cool minty back note. This minty character carries through the flavor, along with burnt caramel notes and a long runway of citrusy tingle. Because of its light body, Amaro Meletti can accent the base spirit in both citrusy and boozy cocktails. It also can be used as part of a split base with vermouth in Martini- or Manhattan-style cocktails.
Amaro Montenegro: A perennial favorite in our cocktail making, Amaro Montenegro has a distinctive aroma of roses, cola, and burnt orange. When sipped, those rich flavors give way to a mild, lingering bitterness, almost like Coca-Cola with a lot less sugar. At 23% ABV, it has the lightness of body to mix beautifully with citrus, which we often do in drinks such as the Crop Top (this page).
Amaro Nonino Quintessentia: We wax poetic about several specific bottles in this book, but Amaro Nonino ranks in the very top tier of all the spirits we use in cocktails. Though it’s rather light in body, it’s built upon grappa, a flavorful base that gives it a deeper backbone than other amari. On the nose it’s a vibrant mix of fresh orange oil, herbs, and birch. The flavor is complex and slightly bitter, with the orange taking on more of an orange-candy quality. Nonino is delicious on its own, and phenomenal in cocktails. We’re particularly fond of splitting the base of Manhattan-style cocktails with Nonino, as in La Viña (this page). And because it’s high in proof (35% ABV) but not too sweet, we also use it as the base in riffs on the Old-Fashioned, as in the Exit Strategy (this page).
MEDIUM AMARI
In our categorization scheme, medium amari are those that have a bit more density than light amari, but not so much that they overpower other flavors. They’re usually deep red or amber in color, with more sweetness and burnt caramel flavors and a more bitter finish. In cocktails, we generally use medium amari in smaller amounts as a seasoning. This can work quite well in riffs on Martinis or Manhattans, where amaro replaces some of the vermouth. In these cases, we skip the aromatic bitters.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Amaro Averna: Not long ago, one of the few amari we could consistently get our hands on was Amaro Averna, which is extremely popular in Italy and widely distributed across the globe. It’s quite a bit sweeter than most amari, but this helps balance its strong flavors of anise, lemon, juniper, and sage. For many people, Averna is a perfect introduction to amari, since its pronounced sweetness tempers its bitterness.
Amaro CioCiaro: With cola and orange aromas, a flavor that features burnt orange, and a moderate sweetness and ABV (30%), CioCiaro straddles a fine line: it isn’t overly assertive, but it won’t get lost in a complex cocktail. It’s a versatile bottle for anyone’s collection, and a favorite substitute for Amer Picon in classics like the Brooklyn (this page) for those who cannot get Bigallet China-China Amer.
Bigallet China-China Amer: Falling somewhere between an amaro and a curaçao, this amer (French for “amaro”) balances citrus, spice, and a pleasant lingering bitterness. A medium amount of sweetness boosts the mandarin orange character. We love to use it in small quantities, from 1 teaspoon to ¼ ounce, to add structure to drinks while also conferring a bright orange quality that lifts otherwise dense spirits, such as Cognac.
Cynar: Though it has a reputation as being extremely bitter, Cynar falls somewhere between the relative lightness of CioCiaro and the strength of the dense amari discussed next. The nose is distinctively vegetal and herbaceous. As its name implies, Cynar contains artichoke (in the genus Cynara), but that’s a bit misleading; artichoke is just one of its many flavorings, but it does smell noticeably earthy. It has a eucalyptus flavor and a long-lasting bitter finish, which can help stretch the flavors of a cocktail.
Ramazzotti: With a noticeable aroma of woodsy birch, cooked citrus, and herbs, Ramazzotti is highly bitter. Sweet and earthy on the palate but surprisingly drying (thanks to the bittering agents), this amaro is bottled at 30% ABV. Ramazzotti’s complex flavor and bitterness make it a great addition to Manhattan-style cocktails, such as Beth’s Going to Town (this page), where it replaces Angostura bitters and a portion of vermouth. Or in an Old-Fashioned, it can replace most of the sweetener while also supplementing the bitters, as in the Pop Quiz (this page).
DENSE AMARI
Compared to all of the previous categories, dense amari can be sweeter, more bitter, or both. As such, all will be noticeably distinctive in a cocktail. We embrace this fact, often using them as a major component in drinks. Occasionally we use a tiny amount—just enough that their big personality is distinguishable beneath the surface of the core flavor, as in the Black Forest (this page).
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Fernet-Branca: Fernet-Branca is an acquired taste. If you’re new to Fernet-Branca, you may initially be overwhelmed by its bitter intensity, but with time it will reveal its nuances, the aroma transforming from terrifying to something hinting at caramel, coffee, and anise, and the intense flavor developing into a rich burnt orange elixir with a minty finish. Don’t despair if it takes you a long time to appreciate Fernet. In fact, there are many in the spirits industry who, despite years of late-night shots of Fernet with cohorts, still view it as thinly veiled medicine. (At least we’re taking our medicine, right?) Making cocktails with Fernet must be approached with the same caution as other dense amari; start with a small quantity as a seasoning, then add more, little by little, if you wish.
Luxardo Amaro Abano: Made with cardamom, cinnamon, bitter orange peel, cinchona, and other ingredients that remain a closely guarded secret, Amaro Abano has an extremely unique flavor profile. We sometimes think we can taste it from a mile away. Its aroma is citrusy and full of baking spices, while the palate leaves a tingling cinnamon flavor that lasts for minutes. Because this flavor will become a dominant component of any cocktail it’s mixed into, we suggest using just a small amount; otherwise, it may take over the drink.
WAYS TO USE AMARI IN COCKTAILS
Seasoning: Highly bitter and flavorful amari can be used in tiny quantities, between a dash and a teaspoon, in much the same way as aromatic bitters. Their strength can bind ingredients that otherwise might not connect seamlessly, or add a unique seasoning that enhances the other ingredients.
Substitution for vermouth: This doesn’t always work, but if an amaro is light enough, it can sometimes take the place of sweet vermouth in cocktails.
Substitution for a portion of vermouth and bitters: Instead of simply substituting vermouth for an amaro, we suggest removing the aromatic bitters and a bit of the vermouth from a Manhattan riff and replacing it with a small amount (between ¼ and ½ ounce) of amari for an interesting variation.
In a split base: Depending on your tolerance for bitterness, any style of amaro can be used in a split base. That said, the bludgeoning power of a dense amaro like Fernet-Branca may make it too heavy-handed to collaborate well with another base spirit, though it could work with the right balance of ingredients.
As the base: Using an amaro as a base ingredient requires a higher-proof bottle (ideally 30% ABV or above) and enough inherent balance to accept the influence of other ingredients. We find that medium amari work best as the base in a cocktail.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE SEASONING
In Flips and their variations, an amaro can serve as a powerful seasoning agent that can cut through the dense flavors of rich ingredients, like egg or dairy. On its own, an amaro is almost like a fully formed cocktail: it exhibits traits of strong, sweet, and sometimes sour, and always a layer of bitterness. You can use amari in cocktails in several ways, depending on the amaro’s proof, sweetness, and bitterness. Because of these characteristics, amaro added to a Flip-style drink will interact with every ingredient and their proportions will need to be adjusted. In the Barnaby Jones (following), the addition of ½ ounce of Cynar necessitates lowering the Scotch to 1½ ounces, while the maple syrup amount finds balance at ½ ounce due to Cynar’s sweetness.
Barnaby Jones
MAURA MCGUIGAN, 2013
The Barnaby Jones is a nog variation that introduces Cynar into the core for complexity. Shaking whole coffee beans with the cocktail adds a subtle coffee flavor while also helping to whip the cream, creating a smooth texture.
1½ ounces Famous Grouse scotch
½ ounce Cynar
½ ounce dark, robust maple syrup
½ ounce heavy cream
1 whole egg
12 coffee beans
Garnish: Cinnamon
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of cinnamon.
Jump in the Line
LAUREN CORRIVEAU, 2015
Here’s a sophisticated nondairy riff on the tropical Piña Colada (this page), with Amaro di Angostura being used to season a core of amontillado sherry. The result is a deeply complex poolside cocktail.
1 orange half wheel
½ strawberry
1½ ounces Lustau Los Arcos amontillado sherry
½ ounce Amaro di Angostura
¼ ounce La Favorite Ambre rhum agricole
1 teaspoon Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao
½ ounce House Coconut Cream (this page)
1 dash Angostura bitters
Garnish: 1 pineapple leaf, 1 orange half wheel, and 1 mint sprig
In a shaker, gently muddle the orange half wheel and strawberry. Add the remaining ingredients and short shake with ice, then double strain into a Collins glass. Fill the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with the pineapple leaf, orange half wheel, and mint sprig and serve with a straw.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
TREVOR EASTER
Trevor Easter was general manager of the Walker Inn and the Normandie Club between 2016 and 2017, and previously worked at fine bars such as Bourbon & Branch and Rickhouse in San Francisco, and Noble Experiment in San Diego.
I actually remember the exact bar stool I sat on when I had my first Flip. I was in a bar called 15 Romolo in San Francisco. They had a drink that I ordered strictly because I thought the name was intriguing—the Sex Panther Flip. I can’t recall what was in it, only that it was the first time I saw someone crack an egg at a bar and use the entire thing. When you throw a whole egg into a tin, people can’t help but ask questions about it—Are you training for a boxing match?—questions that may just pique their interest, leading to the thought, That looks interesting…I think I’ll have one.
For bartenders, the Flip can be an annoying drink because making one is messy and slows down service. For this reason we don’t typically put Flips on our menu, but I like using them as a bartender’s choice whenever a customer asks for something decadent or dessert-y.
When I create Flip variations, I stick to that old-school Jerry Thomas mentality. I like to use an aged spirit as the base; I like what that woodiness does to the drink. I often add sherry or port, then play around with the sweetener—maybe maple syrup or honey instead of sugar to push it even further into the dessert category.
There’s a certain stigma about the Flip and other drinks with a heavier texture. Many people associate richness with sweetness. But a balanced Flip isn’t sweet, though it definitely is decadent. That’s the cool thing about the Flip: it’s somewhere between a cocktail and custard, making it the perfect drink if you want to imbibe after a meal instead of eating dessert.
One of the most important Flip-making techniques I’ve learned is to let the egg warm up just a bit before making the drink. I pull the egg out of the fridge right before I start to build the cocktail, and that minute or so of warm-up time helps ensure that the drink has that big, frothy head that everyone loves. Another thing I like to do is what I call the “David and Goliath shake.” After dry shaking everything, I add a large block of ice to the tin, along with a Kold-Draft cube. Right out of the gate, that huge block obliterates the smaller cube. This brings the temperature down quickly, and then the large block can work like a piston to add air and texture.
Whenever I make a cocktail that calls for an egg white, I like to use the leftover yolk in a Flip-style drink that I give to a guest as an unexpected treat. Why throw out the yolk when you can use it to make someone’s night?
I think the Flip is an untouched frontier for most bartenders. We spend a lot of time making Old-Fashioneds, Manhattans, and Daiquiris, and any decent bartender can easily rattle off riffs on those drinks, but ask them to make you a Flip-style drink, and you’re likely to hit a dead end. To me, this indicates that there’s tremendous potential in that category, with a lot of room for experimentation. Sometimes I dream of a world where I go to a cocktail bar and there’s an entire section of Flips and other dessert drinks on the menu.
Bean Me Up Biscotti
1½ ounces aged rum
½ ounce coffee liqueur
¼ ounce Faretti Biscotti Famosi liqueur
1 ounce heavy cream
1 whole egg
Garnish: Nutmeg
Dry shake all the ingredients, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a small white wine glass. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
EXPLORING TECHNIQUE: USING EGGS IN COCKTAILS
The proteins in eggs can make drinks frothy, but some special techniques are required to make the frothiest cocktails possible. When building cocktails that use raw eggs in any form, never add liquor or citrus on top of the egg. Acidity or alcohol will “cook” the egg if the ingredients are left standing too long, producing an off-putting texture and flavor. Therefore, we recommend that you first crack the egg into the larger shaker tin or separate the white into the larger tin. Then build the rest of the cocktail in the smaller shaker tin, keeping the ingredients separate from the egg. (Another advantage of keeping the egg separate in this way is that eggs can be tricky to work with: you’ll probably mess up the cracking or separation at some point or need to fish out a small piece of shell.)
When you’re ready to shake, bear in mind that ice inhibits foaming. So the first step is to shake the cocktail without ice—a technique known as dry shaking. So don’t add any ice before you seal the tin. Then, be sure to seal it tightly. As the egg proteins expand to create all of that frothy goodness, the pressure inside the tin will increase and try to push it open. Once the shaker is tightly sealed, shake the drink vigorously for about five seconds.
Crack the tin open and peek inside. If you’re using a whole egg or just the white, the mixture will be foamy. Transfer the foamy liquid to the small shaker tin, carefully add ice to the small tin to fill it to the top, then seal the shaker and shake vigorously once again. When you think you’ve shaken enough, shake for a few seconds longer. All of this agitation will both dilute and chill the drink, while also adding water and air that will be trapped by the egg’s protein, creating stronger, more consistent foam.
Once shaken, open the tin and ensure that all the liquid is in the large shaker. We prefer to double strain all cocktails that contain egg. This will keep ice chips (as well as any errant bits of shell) out of a cocktail that’s all about texture. In addition, the mesh of the sieve also helps aerate the drink even more, promoting further foaming.
A final and important step is to clean your tools properly. For working bartenders, simply dunking them in a sink filled with water is a big no-no. The egg clinging to the shaker and sieve will contaminate the water, so don’t do it! Instead, rinse your shaker and tools independently and thoroughly, then smell them; if there’s even a hint of egg aroma, wash them again.
We would be remiss not to mention that there’s also a school of thought that it’s preferable to invert the approach, first shaking the entire drink and egg with ice, then straining the drink and shaking it again without ice to froth it up just before pouring it into a glass. Called the reverse dry shake, this makes for beautifully frothy cocktails. Those who favor this technique claim the cocktail will have a more pronounced head and stay frothy longer, but we’ve found that the difference is marginal. Give each approach a try and decide which you like better. We prefer the regular dry shake because it involves fewer steps but yields similar results.
PRESSURIZED SHAKING AND THE RAMOS GIN FIZZ REVISITED
Famous for its restorative properties, the Ramos Gin Fizz (this page) is a creamy and floral drink that cures a hangover nearly as well as a Bloody Mary. Hailing from New Orleans and supposedly invented in 1888, its popularity has just as much to do with its nearly universally loved flavor as with the ritual of its preparation and the drama of its presentation. The nineteenth-century version was purported to be best when shaken for a full ten minutes—or longer! That extended shaking time beats the cream and egg into a fluffy froth, making for an ethereally light cocktail.
Taking ten minutes to shake a cocktail is both one hell of a workout and time that a bartender never has. Our trick in the past was to make a ritual of passing the shaker around the bar, having patrons join the fun and show off their shaking skills.
Then we stumbled onto the idea of using an iSi whipper (see this page) to quickly infuse tiny bubbles of N2O into the cocktail. The result is the fluffiest cocktail we’ve ever made. Because of its greater volume, a large glass (20 to 24 ounces) must be used.
It should be noted that this technique is in no way endorsed by iSi—and should only be undertaken with caution. We have made hundreds with no issue, but we have followed a strict safety protocol of always using large 1-liter canisters and never filling the canister more than half full (including ice).
N2O Ramos Gin Fizz
2 ounces Plymouth gin
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 ounce heavy cream
1 egg white
3 drops orange flower water
Cold seltzer
Combine all the ingredients (except the seltzer) in an iSi whipper; don’t add any ice. Seal and shake for 20 seconds. Open, add five 1-inch ice cubes, then seal tightly once again. Charge with an N2O cartridge, then shake for 10 seconds. Release the first burst of pressure into a cocktail shaker or other vessel, then turn the canister all the way upside down and dispense the cocktail into a large glass. Let settle for about 1 minute. Carefully add the cold seltzer, pouring it down a spoon to ensure that it goes directly to the bottom of the glass and lifts the foamy cocktail above the rim of the glass. No garnish.
This technique can be applied to any cocktail containing proteins that will bond around air when agitated (eggs and cream, for example) to make a frothy drink.
GLASSWARE: DEALER’S CHOICE
There’s not a single glass that’s best for the Flip and its extended family of cocktails, in part because these drinks take so many different forms: hot or cold, modest in volume or extravagantly frothy. This provides us with a good opportunity to talk about selecting the ideal serving vessel for different types of cocktails.
For the classic Flip and other cold cocktails made with eggs or dairy, we use a glass that’s large enough to hold the extra froth, but not so large that there’s a lot of extra headroom between the top of the drink and the rim of the glass. A glass that holds 7 to 8 ounces should do the trick. A glass with a stem is ideal, since it prevents the cocktail from being warmed by the drinker’s hands. Lastly, the diameter of the rim should be fairly wide so there’s enough surface area atop the drink for dusting it with spices or applying other garnishes, which are often an important component of this style of cocktail.
We often serve Flip-style drinks in a coupe or a small wineglass, such as those meant for white wine or rosé. A favorite of ours is the rosé glass made by Schott Zwiesel, which flares outward slightly at the top of the glass.
Just as cold cocktails need a stem, hot ones need a handle. For warm, creamy drinks like Irish Coffee (this page) or a Tom and Jerry (this page), we often reach for a clear toddy glass, which has the advantage of allowing the guest to see the gorgeous cocktail inside. But for others, such as the Almond Orchard (this page), a decorative wooden bowl, coffee mug, or teacup can give the drink more character, just as tiki mugs do for tropical drinks.
FLIP VARIATIONS
Variations on the Flip have developed down a few different paths. As shown in the preceding sections, base spirits or fortified wines can be swapped in and out of the Flip template, eggs and dairy can be removed, or the sweetener can be manipulated. What’s consistent in these variations on the root recipe is an overall richness and a creamy texture. Here we explore a handful of well-known variations that take the Flip orthodoxy and push it in different directions.
White Russian
CLASSIC
Some variations on the Flip template are simple concoctions that omit the egg, contain just a few ingredients, and are simply built in the serving glass. The classic White Russian is just such a drink. Because there’s nothing complicated about these drinks, the quality of their ingredients is paramount. Like many other classic drinks in this chapter, the White Russian is often derided, but it’s actually more carefully balanced than its reputation suggests. The fact that it calls for half-and-half, rather than cream, makes it light enough for everyday drinking; plus, if it called for heavy cream, the coffee flavor of the liqueur could be overwhelmed.
1½ ounces Absolut Elyx vodka
1 ounce Caffé Lolita coffee liqueur
1 ounce half-and-half
Garnish: 3 coffee beans
Combine the vodka and liqueur in a double Old-Fashioned glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and stir briefly. Layer the half-and-half on top. Garnish with the coffee beans.
Irish Coffee
CLASSIC
In this Flip variation, the cream isn’t mixed into the cocktail; instead, it’s whipped and floated on top. Because the heat of the underlying ingredients unravels the structure of the whipped cream, causing it to seep into the liquid in a less-than-appealing way, we recommend whipping the cream until it develops soft peaks so it will hold up longer.
2 ounces heavy cream
1½ ounces Jameson Irish whiskey
¾ ounce Demerara Gum Syrup (this page)
3 ounces hot brewed coffee
Using a bowl and whisk, whip the cream until soft peaks begin to form. Warm a coffee or toddy mug by filling it with boiling water, letting it sit a minute or two, then dumping out the water. Pour in the whiskey and syrup, then slowly add the coffee while stirring continuously. Carefully spoon all the whipped cream on top of the drink.
Grasshopper
CLASSIC
The Grasshopper is a rich but oddly refreshing liqueur-based cocktail. This cocktail and many others of its ilk have been relegated to dive bars for decades, but as high-quality liqueurs have come to the market—made with actual mint and cacao rather than artificial flavorings—we’ve revisited these classics and added some of them to our repertoire. In this cocktail, the fresh mint garnish provides both aromatic and visual reinforcement of the minty character of the cocktail.
1 ounce Tempus Fugit white crème de menthe
1 ounce Giffard white crème de cacao
1 ounce heavy cream
8 mint leaves
Garnish: 1 mint leaf
Shake all the ingredients with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with the mint leaf, placing it on top of the drink.
Tom and Jerry
CLASSIC
Long before central heat could protect us against the elements, humans had the bright idea to mix dairy with some booze to ward off the cold and rain. In fact, that may be how the Flip originated, as a heated mixture of egg, ale, and sugar. Although modern-day Flips are almost always served cold, the idea of a warm drink on a cold day remains appealing, and one of the most comforting warm drinks out there is the Tom and Jerry, a wintertime favorite packed with rum, Cognac, dairy, and eggs (which are a component of the Tom and Jerry Batter).
1 ounce El Dorado 12-year rum
1 ounce Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
2 ounces Tom and Jerry Batter (this page)
2 ounces hot milk
Garnish: Nutmeg
Warm a coffee mug or teacup by filling it with boiling water, letting it sit a minute or two, then dumping out the water. Pour in the rum and Cognac, then add the batter. Stir until well combined, then slowly add the hot milk. Garnish with a few grates of nutmeg.
Golden Cadillac
CLASSIC
The classic Golden Cadillac is another chip off the Grasshopper block, with the vanilla and licorice flavors of the Galliano taking the cocktail in a different direction. A shaving of dark chocolate atop the drink accents the liqueur, drawing out some of its pleasantly bitter qualities.
1 ounce Galliano l’Autentico
1 ounce Giffard white crème de cacao
1 ounce heavy cream
Garnish: Dark chocolate
Shake all the ingredients with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a few grates of dark chocolate.
Piña Colada
CLASSIC
Though the Piña Colada is a famous cocktail associated with sandy beaches and thatched bars, analyzing the recipe reveals that it’s basically another type of Flip. It was a shock to us to think of the Piña Colada as something other than a sour-style drink, but there you have it. The rum brings proof, coconut cream adds fat and sweetness, and the pineapple juice provides sweetness and acidity.
2 ounces Caña Brava white rum
½ ounce Cruzan Black Strap rum
1½ ounces fresh pineapple juice
1½ ounces House Coconut Cream (this page)
Garnish: 1 pineapple wedge and 1 brandied cherry on an umbrella skewer
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker and whip, shaking with a few pieces of crushed ice, just until incorporated, then dump into a double Old-Fashioned glass and fill the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with the pineapple wedge and cherry and serve with a straw.