Eggs In Cocktails Is A Thing And I Am Here To Tell You That It Works!
I clearly remember that day, not long ago, when I walked into a bar, looked over the cocktail menu and decided to experiment a bit by swapping out my usual martini cocktail for a whisky sour. As I placed the order at the bar, the mixologist looked at me twice, recognising at once that this was the first time I had ordered a sour cocktail and asked, “It contains egg, is that ok?”
There was a befuddled expression on my face. “Egg in a cocktail? Hah!” I remember myself exclaiming. Yet, I had decided to experiment and now I wanted to play it through. With a little bit of doubt about what was to come my way, I nodded my assent and waited for the drink to appear at my table.
This was my first encounter with an egg-infused cocktail.
A Meet Cute
When the whisky sour was finally delivered to my table layered with a light white foam and a dehydrated orange wheel garnish, it looked like a magnificent drink sitting on a bed of ice in a rocks glass. I took my first sip of this cocktail complete with its tart, acidic and dense flavours and I was an instant fan. My meet cute with the whisky sour was going to inspire an enduring curiosity about cocktails containing eggs and what the addition of this ingredient does to their texture, structure and tasting notes.
Inspiring Elegance
Just like me, for many other cocktail enthusiasts, the first reaction to eggs in drinks is the quirk of a brow and a light frown playing on the lips. But eggs are hardly an unappetising addition to cocktails. Take the pisco sour. This brings together a spirit prepared using grapes with an egg white foam that settles on top of the drink like a soft, cottony cloud. It creates a delicate and soft textural sophistication in a cocktail that is otherwise full of rather tart and even acidic, lemony flavours.
Another drink whose exquisite character comes forth as a result of the addition of egg whites is a ramos gin fizz. This drink carries a meringue-like quality because of the presence of cream and milk but what ties all these ingredients together is a fresh egg white foam which builds such a stunning, frothy structure into the cocktail that it acquires a creamy and rich composition. Such a sophisticated coming together of ingredients inspires sheer elegance that feels, to be honest, quite fancy!
A Classic Flip
And then there is the classic flip cocktail which makes use of the whole egg – yolk and all – to make a drink which is like a ‘pudding in a cup.’ This is because what eggs essentially do to cocktails is that when shaken or whipped in, they lend more volume and density to the blend, making it richer and heavier.
A classic flip cocktail brings together a whole egg with about 30 ml of any dark spirit like rum or port to deliver a blend which is reminiscent of having a drink at old bars and pubs nestled in small towns in the dead of winter.
So, going beyond the inherent hesitations about how eggs would impact a cocktail, the more interesting discovery was how it was not the taste but the feel and structure of the egg that seeped into the cocktail blend. Interestingly, one cannot taste the egg when it is added to a cocktail and this remains one of the most startling of many such mixology discoveries that I have since witnessed. Eggs remain that silent element in the drink which hardly interfere with its flavour composition but are in fact instrumental in lending a flip cocktail or a sour blend its characteristically soft texture.
Also Read: The Role Of Egg White In A Whisky Sour Cocktail: Add It Or Skip It?
Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.
