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All cocktails Chicago Fizz

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Chicago Fizz

Classic/vintage

4.1 20 ratings

Ingredients

1 oz Dark/black rum
1 oz Tawny port
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1/4 oz Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1)
1/2 oz Egg white
1 oz Soda water

How to make

Serve in a highball (max 10oz/300ml) glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a HIGHBALL (MAX 10OZ/300ML) GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of quarter lemon slice wheel.

Method

  1. 3 SHAKE first 5 ingredients with ice and strain back into the shaker.
  2. 4 DRY SHAKE (without ice) to emulsify.
  3. 5 Slowly POUR 2/3rds of the shaker's contents from a higher-than-normal height into chilled glass (no ice in the glass) while simultaneously pouring soda with your other hand. The cocktail and soda should form a single stream of liquid falling into the glass.
  4. 6 As when pouring Guinness, to achieve a perfect head on a fizz, the cocktail should be left to settle for at least a minute before topping off with what remains in the shaker. Ideally, during the settling period, the glass should be placed in a glass froster/fridge/freezer. As the final contents of the shaker are poured into the glass, the head should rise like a souffle.

Garnish

  1. 7 Garnish with quarter lemon wheel on rim.

Flavour profile

10.2% alc./vol. · 1 standard drink · 150 calories

History

The rum's character is prominent, setting it apart from inferior fizzes.

The Chicago Fizz is first documented in Jacques Straub's 1914 book, Drinks. The recipe from this book is as follows: Juice of ½ a lemon, 1 barspoon of sugar, ½ jigger Jamaica rum, ½ jigger port wine, 1 white of egg. Shake, strain. Fill glass with siphon. In his 1931 book, Old Waldorf Bar Days, Albert Stevens Crockett attributes the drink to New York's Waldorf-Astoria bar, calling it "an importation from the Windy City," which explains its name. The drink has since fallen out of common knowledge following Prohibition. A later version of the recipe in the book reads: (lemonade) Juice one-fourth Lemon, One-half spoon Sugar, White of one Egg, One-half jigger Jamaica Rum, One-half jigger Port Wine. Shake; strain; fill from siphon. This recipe notes it was an importation from the Windy City long before bombs, machine guns and sawed-off shotguns had come to disturb its peaceful life.