Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: The Egg and I

Hello and happy Summer Friday to you all. I feel like I’ve been in a rut recently and overlooking some of the great resources I have in my cocktail library. In an effort to rectify that, I went looking in a rarely used, but fantastic resource in the Bartender Manual by Jim Meehan. I’ve used this before but nowhere near as often as I should. This this is like a textbook. I would expect this to be required reading in a bartending class.

While flipping through looking for another Lillet cocktail, I came across the White Lady, which is a sour with a gin base. Not like the gin sour I made previously, this one actually contains the egg white I omitted before. I’m curious to see how it plays.

2 oz. Beefeater gin (I used New Amsterdam)

1 oz. Lemon juice

.75 oz. Cointreau

1 Egg white

Garnish: None

Dry shake, then shake with ice and fine strain into a chilled egg coupe

I get a faint hint of lemon and gin on the nose, along with a little more intense citrus, no doubt from the Cointreau. Meehan mentions in the recipe that “egg white cocktails tend to have a musty aroma”, and he suggests a twist of lemon or orange peel as a garnish to add a nice touch and mask the must. I honestly didn’t get much of a musty aroma on this one. However, the addition of a citrus peel would be welcome here, just from an aesthetic standpoint. A little orange or yellow pop on top of the drink would really make it stand out I think.

The sip is quite nice. It starts off gin forward, mixed with the fresh lemon juice. The citrus and the gin really balance each other out well here. Neither the strong juniper flavors or the sour lemon can really dominate. The Cointreau is also able to make its presence knows, which is a little bit of a surprise. I can taste a little hint of the orange undertones it brings to the flavor profile, which brightens up the overall flavor just a bit.

The mouth feel is very light. The egg white does not provide much of a coating, nor does it help leave flavors behind on your palate once you’re finished with the sip. This is what I mean when I mentioned it was not what I expected. Usually (at least the ones that I’ve made) egg based drinks tend to be heavier and coat the palate and leave behind the flavors you just had. Not in this case. I think the 3.75 total ounces of liquid must do some black magic fuckery to the egg white, where it only provides texture, but keeps it light, and does not allow it to linger.

I would absolutely make this one again. I’d say serve this one as a liquid dessert after a not so heavy meal.

(Banner image found here)