Ask a Bartender: What Is a Flip Cocktail?

If the thought of cracking an egg into a cocktail shaker and mixing it up with booze makes you a little weary, you’re not alone — but you clearly haven’t sipped a flip.

Known for its inclusion of a whole egg (yes, the yolk, too) flip cocktails can be divisive. But what exactly is a flip-style drink beyond its infamous star ingredient? VinePair asked Aiden Bowie, the beverage director at New York City’s stalwart Irish cocktail bar Dead Rabbit to share some details on this curious cocktail style.

At their core, flip-style cocktails are frothy, full-bodied drinks made by combining a whole egg with sugar and a spirit or fortified wine, most commonly brandy, sherry, rum, or bourbon. The drink is one of the most classic of classic cocktails, dating back to the late 1600s. The style is believed to have originated in England, and first consisted of beer, rum, and sugar served hot and frothed with a hot iron poker known as a loggerhead. Eventually, when the drink made its way stateside via sailors in the late 1700s, it was served cold and eggs replaced the beer to mimic the thick texture. (Apparently President George Washington himself was a big fan of flip cocktails.) These days, it’s most often shaken with ice and strained into a coupe or a Nick and Nora, and there are endless variations popping up on cocktail menus across the country.

Bowie says that while it’s a somewhat simple build, making a flip will test the merit of anyone behind the stick. Since flips feature sugar as one of three ingredients, they can lean sweet. “The cocktail still needs to be balanced but you can’t have citrus or a lot of other ingredients that add acidity because you don’t want the egg to curdle,” he says.

Shaking technique is also important because the thick-yet-silky texture is the drink’s defining characteristic. “The main element of the flip is the texture,” Bowie says. “Because you’ve got the egg yolk in there as well as the white, you get this really kind of nice, creamy viscous flavor.”

That’s also why it’s most popular in the wintertime. Similar to an eggnog — just without added cream or milk — the cocktail has intense richness that finds its way onto holiday menus. But in the centuries since the drink first rose to prominence, bartenders have been pushing the limits of this classic by serving it on menus year-round and introducing playful fresh ingredients and new spirits.

Beyond the more traditional holiday offerings, the Dead Rabbit also featured a flip-style cocktail dubbed the Miso Colada on a recent menu. With gin and shochu combined with tropical fruits like pineapple, coconut, and papaya, the ingredient list doesn’t tip off that this would be a flip. But Bowie and the team added red miso and a whole egg to round out the drink and challenge the notion of what a flip can be.

Other notable variations include the Death Flip, invented in 2010 by Chris Hysted-Adams at Melbourne’s the Black Pearl. This provocative take on the style features blanco tequila, yellow Chartreuse, Jägermeister, simple syrup, and, of course, a freshly cracked egg. That cocktail has become somewhat of a modern classic appearing on several stateside menus, along with other variations using unexpected spirits like mezcal and taking inspiration from Hong Kong-style French toast.

So if you see the term “flip” on the menu, no need to expect some form of gymnastics to unfold on the bar. Just know you have a deliciously creamy and complex drink on the way.

The article Ask a Bartender: What Is a Flip Cocktail? appeared first on VinePair.