Tuesday, May 11, 2010

trinidad fizz

1 oz Angostura Bitters
1 tsp Grenadine or Sugar (Homemade Grenadine)
Juice of 1/2 Lemon or Full Lime (1/4 Lemon + 1/2 Lime, approx 1 oz total)
1 Egg White
1/2 oz Thick Cream

Shake with ice and strain into a goblet (rocks glass). Add seltzer (~2 oz) to taste. Garnish with fresh pineapple sticks.

After returning from a large dinner on Wednesday, it was time to find a drink to settle our stomachs. Andrea was up for a bitters-heavy drink, and I figured it was time to try Charles H. Baker's Trinidad Fizz (a/k/a Angostura Fizz) from his 1939 The Gentleman's Companion since the Angostura shortage was over. In Baker's book, the drink was in a section of 12 "Temperance Delights"; while it is true that the Trinidad Fizz contains no standard base spirit, Angostura does weigh in around 90 proof and there is a full pony jigger of the stuff! The drink may have had a medicinal origin due to Angostura's botanicals such that Baker claimed that it could help fight malaria and amoebic fevers. Moreover, he listed it as a "well known stomachic" which was what we wanted.
With the Fizz's soda water, it was surely a lot lighter and more refreshing than the Trinidad Sour, and I felt like the drink might make a great hangover palliative. The Trinidad Fizz contained a large amount of cherry aroma from the Angostura. Flavorwise, the citrus was at the beginning of the sip, a sort of salty note on the swallow, and lingering spices such as clove and cherry wood on the swallow. The shaken egg white interacting with the soda water added a delightfully smooth texture to the drink that might also add some breakfast to the hangover cure concept.

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