Morning Glory Fizz

The Fizz is a genre of cocktail that sparkles - with vitality as well as CO2. Having been roused by the original Gin Fizz, and enchanted by the Ramos Gin Fizz, my Fizz family genealogy project continues apace. The Morning Glory Fizz leapt at me from the pages of David Wondrich's Imbibe! for two reasons. One, obviously, was my fondness for whisky, which thus far I've tried mixing in cocktails only thrice (here, here and here). The second was my recent purchase of a bottle of blended Scotch known as Bailie Nicol Jarvie, which I've heard highly recommended as a base for cocktails.

Morning Glory Fizz

60ml (2oz) Scotch whisky

1/2 tsp Absinthe

1 egg white

15ml (0.5oz) lemon juice

7.5ml (0.25oz) lime juice

0.75 tsp fine sugar

Soda water

Pour lemon and lime juice and sugar into a cocktail shaker and stir until sugar has dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients and plenty of ice and shake well. Strain into a glass tumbler and top with soda water.

I must admit the instruction to 'top' a cocktail with something, like soda water, annoys me slightly (only slightly). What's the point in measuring out precise pours of every other ingredient - something I wholly believe in for consistency's sake - when the amount of mixer added at the end can vary so dramatically depending on the size of the glass, potentially changing the character of the drink? Nevertheless, I did what I was told here, and topped my tumbler.

The Morning Glory Fizz tasted faintly like a whisky sour, but not quite. At first, I feared the soda had diluted things too much. But when I forced myself to stop obsessing about tasting the whisky, allowing it instead to submerge into the whole, I started to quite enjoy its gentle caress. This was far more delicate, and refreshing, than a whisky sour, and I enjoyed the subtlety of the absinthe.
As Wondrich explains, any drink that goes by the name Morning Glory is a hangover-helper. I can't say I've been brave enough yet to put that to the test, but I can think of far worse antidotes to a bad head.