We sauntered into San Francisco cocktail institution Bourbon & Branch on George’s birthday, ready to get schooled in the best drinks the city had to offer. George happened upon a drink called the O’Farrell St. Fizz- a knotty combo of bourbon, blackberry liqueur and allspice dram, shaken with egg white and topped with club soda. It was too interesting not to try, so try we did, and we loved it.

As outlined in this previous post, Patrice then did a vital piece of reconnoisance- asking our new pals at Bourbon & Branch sister store Cask for the secrets behind this magical combination.

One thing we had to tackle to truly do justice to the drink was learn the Hard Shake technique, a special bit of cobbler shaker acrobatics that would effectively whip the egg whites and add a sheen of tiny ice crystals to the surface of our O’Farrell St. Fizz. It took a try or two, but we got the gist, and just a little while later, we churned out a fair facsimile of this wonderful cocktail.

George executing the hard shake:

The O’Farrell St. Fizz - via Bourbon & Branch

Combine in a cobbler shaker:

1 1/2 oz Booker’s bourbon
3/4 oz Rocky Mountain Blackberry liqueur
1/3 oz Allspice Dram liqueur
1/2 oz Egg white
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Simple syrup
Ice to fill shaker halfway

Hard shake and strain into a Collins glass, adding ice at your discretion.

George found he dug it even better with an additional 1/2 oz of Bourbon and 3 dashes of aromatic bitters (The Bitter Truth, if you’ve got it). Patrice was a classicist, but added a splash of extra soda and ice.

If you’ve never tried an egg white cocktail, you really must give this one a go. It’s not as scary as you might think. We purchased a special ketchup style bottle (also from cask) to shake up the egg white with the simple syrup and lemon.

And if you haven’t checked out Cask yet, get over there! They will outfit you with just about everything you need to make this cocktail (We hear if you pop in on Wednesdays, Joel, the head bartender at Bourbon and Branch would be happy to demonstrate techniques for you).

All in all it took a bit more investment and time than we normally spend on our endeavors, but if you are willing to put in the time, it’s well worth it. If you’re not, that’s cool, too. Just pop on over to Bourbon and Branch, get a reservation, and have Joel make one for you.

Pure yum.

Filed under: Cocktail Hour, Recipes, Technique

One Response to “The Hard Shake”

1. feeding // fashionistas Says:
   February 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

   [...] by the silky goodness of the O’Farrell St. Fizz we outlined a couple of posts ago, and a lust for new and untried spirits, I cranked out a Pisco [...]

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