Bourbon Fizz

Bourbon, lemon, sugar, and soda — the Fizz Thomas codified in 1862, New Orleans the American capital of the format (Ramos Gin Fizz, 1888).

The Bourbon Fizz applies the Fizz format — one of the great organizing principles of 19th-century American bartending — to bourbon, producing a lighter, carbonated, more refreshing version of the spirit's standard sour or highball serves. The Fizz category was established in American cocktail culture by the mid-19th century and codified in Jerry Thomas's Bar-Tenders Guide (1862). The format's defining structure is spirit, citrus, sugar, and soda water shaken together — unlike the Collins, which builds directly in the glass, the Fizz was traditionally dry-shaken or shaken with ice and then strained, the soda added afterward to preserve maximum carbonation. New Orleans became the center of American Fizz culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Henry C. Ramos developed the Ramos Gin Fizz there around 1888, a cream-and-citrus elaboration that required extended shaking and became one of the most labor-intensive drinks in the canon. The Silver Fizz added egg white for foam; the Golden Fizz used egg yolk; the Royal Fizz used a whole egg. The bourbon Fizz takes the basic spirit-citrus-sugar-soda structure and benefits specifically from bourbon's natural vanilla and caramel notes, which the lemon juice and soda water frame without masking, producing a drink that is more complex than a gin fizz but equally refreshing.