Put an extra lift in your day with the Bourbon Lift.
If a New York style Egg Cream and a Ramos Gin Fizz ever combined it would look an awful lot like the Bourbon Lift. Thick, foamy, and slightly caffeinated, this underrated cocktail is for anyone who loves a frothed egg white cocktail and/or an Espresso Martini.
The lift is a fairly new category of cocktails alongside long-standing classics like toddies, bucks, sours, smashes, and juleps. But a group of San Francisco bartenders thought the 21st century needed a category of its own. At their core, lifts include a spirit, heavy cream, and orgeat. Made from almonds, sugar, and rose water, orgeat is a sweet syrup that’s most known as a key player in the 1960s Tiki cocktail game. But modern brands like Liber & Co., alongside some modern-minded bartenders, have been working to make orgeat hip again. Starting with the Lift.
The Bourbon Lift was first inspired by the classic Egg Cream, which calls for chocolate, whole milk, and club soda. The reaction between the club soda and the cream creates a floating layer of froth. A similar reaction happens with a Ramos Gin Fizz – a cocktail cousin to the egg cream that uses gin, citrus, sugar, heavy cream, egg whites, and club soda. With the Bourbon Lift, you can definitely see the resemblance, but maybe not taste it.
Rather than tons of citrus or chocolate, the Bourbon Lift focuses on coffee liqueur and orgeat for a light and mild flavor. Then comes the bourbon. Despite the non-alcoholic Egg Cream inspiration, the Bourbon Lift is still a bourbon-based cocktail after all. The cocktail is then finished off with the classic heavy cream and club soda combination for that signature float.
The Bourbon Lift is a great cocktail to mix when you need a little after dinner lift or a boost at breakfast – choose your own adventure.
Bourbon Lift
Equipment
- 1 Cocktail Shaker
- 1 Collins Glass
Ingredients
- 1½ ounces Bourbon
- ½ ounce Coffee Liqueur
- ½ ounce Orgeat
- ½ ounce Heavy Cream
- Club Soda (to top)
Instructions
- To a cocktail shaker, add 1½ ounces of Bourbon, ½ ounce of Coffee Liqueur, ½ ounce of heavy cream, and ½ ounce of Orgeat.
- Dry shake the ingredients for about 15 seconds or until everything is frothy.
- Add ice and shake the mixture again until well chilled.
- Strain into a fresh Collins glass.
- Slowly pour in the club soda until the mixture is about 1 inch from the top of the Collins glass. Do not stir.
- After about 30 seconds, pour in another ounce of soda until the froth rises above the glass.
