Chicago Fizz – Recipe from ‘Old Waldorf Bar Days’

An importation from the Windy City long before bombs, machine guns and sawed-off shotguns had come to disturb its peaceful life. 

(lemonade) 

Juice one-fourth Lemon 

On e-half spoon Sugar 

White of one Egg 

One-half jigger Jamaica Rum 

One-half jigger Port Wine 

Shake; strain; fill from siphon

Chicago, as you may have gathered was a rough place during prohibition USA. Home of Al Capone it was infamous for its shoot outs, robberies, corruption and general civil disobedience. In a way it seems to be the centre of criminality in the US during those tumultuous years, I suspect mostly due to Capone being unable to steer clear of the limelight.

A couple of years I did some research into a New York Sour for a class at Goat. This drink is simply your classic Whiskey Sour with the addition of a red wine float on top, one of the few classic drinks to use wine as an ingredient and survive 100 odd years. The thing that struck me about the drink was that this combination of red wine and cocktail originated in Chicago not New York, and started its life off as a Continental Sour, or Southern Whiskey Sour before being appropriated by the big apple.

Where this drink fits in is that it’s simply a New York sour topped with soda, only with rum instead of whiskey, and port instead of red wine, I wonder if a further variation of this wine and sour combination that seemed to be popular in Chicago.

The drink is a great one, I love the way soda and egg white froths up in the glass, and fills it if you pour it cleverly……

The flavours work really well too, well worth trying.