Ramos Gin Fizz — a frothy drink that might require a workout

To treat the Ramos Gin Fizz right, you must shake the ingredients for several minutes.

I love a good mystery so when one landed in my lap — a genealogy mystery at that — I was up for the task. Add a cocktail to the mix and you’re talking good times.

Camille Harley serving the Ramos Gin Fizz

It all started with my grandmother’s family, who took in a young woman when she lost her parents in the late 19th century. Leontine McCarty’s father served in some capacity in the Civil War for he left behind letters he wrote to his wife, Mary Howard, a native of Baltimore. On what side Joseph McCarty served is anyone’s guess; the letters are mysteriously vague. Joseph McCarty died right after the war, in New Orleans, and Mary went to work as a steward for the quarantine station at the mouth of the Mississippi. She wasn’t happy there (who would be?) and later remarried, then died, leaving Leontine McCarty alone. That’s where my grandmother’s family came in.

Genealogy is big part research, many parts guessing game. Leontine went to work for the Ramos family and a cousin claimed this was for Henry C. Ramos, the creator of the Ramos Gin Fizz cocktail. All my genealogy sources show she rented and was head of the boardinghouse owned by Henry’s brother, William, then purchased the building at 836 N. Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter after William Ramos’s death. In some documents, she’s listed as being Mrs. L. Savant but I’ve never found a Mr. Savant connected to Leontine.

My cousin also claimed the building had three servant quarters, two apartments and a downstairs kitchen “about a block long.”

“We used to skate up and down that long yard — the food was sent up from the kitchen,” she related. “They had I think called the dump elevator opened in this big lovely dining room.”

Dump elevator?

So how this lady is related to the Ramos family, I really have no idea. I do know she’s descended from the highfalutin McCarty family of New Orleans, which includes plantation owners, a former mayor and the infamous Delphine McCarty LaLaurie, who tortured slaves in what is now a haunted house (once owned by Nicholas Cage) and the subject of a “American Horror Story” season. Leontine, however, never associated with those folks because she’s descended from a liaison between a white McCarty and his black mistress.

What’s cool is her association with Henry C. Ramos, however that may be, a man who created an amazing drink created from gin, egg whites, cream, lemon and lime juices, orange flower water and soda water that must be shaken at least six minutes. At least! Because of the cream and egg whites, intense shaking for several minutes is required for the drink to produce a frothy head. Ramos hired “shaker boys” to vibrate cocktail canisters for eight minutes per drink to produce the required result.

Ramos is said to have invented this time-intensive concoction in 1888 at his bar, the Imperial Cabinet Saloon on Gravier Street in New Orleans. At one time Ramos had bartenders lined up to shake his popular cocktail, passing along the shakers when arms got tired. And don’t even think to stir it!

Credit: Bourbon O Bar in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel.

But that may not be the whole story. There’s some argument as to whether Ramos created the drink or it was the brainchild of friend Philip Machet, who owned a package liquor store in Baton Rouge.

“Machet was an enterprising sort, and as a way to encourage business, he created a new drink from gin, cream, egg white, lemon juice, and soda water,” writes Elizabeth M. Williams and Chris McMillian in “Lift Your Spirits: A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans.”

Machet offered this unique mixture to customers and soon the demand for the drink outpaced the sales of his store’s liquor, not to mention his ability to serve the drink to so many customers, the authors attest. So, Machet sold the recipe to Ramos.

When Ramos opened the Imperial in New Orleans, he sold the original gin cocktail but added his own ingredients. The drink became a sensation— sometimes selling up to 5,000 in a week. One Mardi Gras there were 32 bartenders behind Ramos’ bar.

Ramos served his last Gin Fizz in 1919, when Prohibition began and bars and saloons were forced to close. He died in 1928, his drink so renown his obituary was published in TIME magazine.

What the frothy drink continues!The Bourbon O Bar in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the middle of the French Quarter brought back the frothy, refreshing Ramos Gin Fizz, and it’s the perfect anecdote to summer. They have installed a shaking machine that saves their bartenders from quitting, so visitors can ask for the perfect Ramos Gin Fizz shaken several minutes for optimal effect, as per Henry’s instructions.

“It’s (the machine) the only one of its kind in the French Quarter,” said Camille Harley, the Bourbon O Bar mixologist, when I visited pre-pandemic. “‘The Joy of Mixology’ says to blend the Gin Fizz in a blender, but it doesn’t quite get as frothy.”

The prolonged shaking makes all the difference, Harley insists. “When you shake it this long, it forms a meringue. It’s very frothy, very fresh.”

Harley offers one last piece of advice for the perfect Ramos Gin Fizz.

“The biggest thing is to add soda water last,” she says.

When I received my frothy, delicious drink I took my photo with Henry C. Ramos, a man who kinda sort is related. Maybe?

Here’s the cocktail recipe, thanks to the Bourbon Orleans Hotel.

Ramos Gin Fizz

1 1/2 ounces gin

1 tablespoon simple syrup (1:1)

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1 fresh egg white

1 ounce heavy cream

3 drops orange flower water

1 ounce club soda

Chilled tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: highball

Garnish: Orange peel

Direction: Combine the first six ingredients in a shaker without ice and shake vigorously to combine. Add ice to the shaker and shake again for at least 6 to 12 minutes. Strain into a glass, top with club soda and the orange flower water and stir.

Henry and the author.

Weird, Wacky & Wild South is written by travel, food and cocktail enthusiast Cheré Dastugue Coen who is only related to Henry Ramos by a weird inheritance.