raspberry ginger fix

1 oz Raspberry Syrup
1 oz Ginger Syrup
1 1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 1/2 oz Orange Juice

Build in a Double Old Fashioned glass, stir to mix, and fill with crushed ice. Garnish elaborately with fruits and berries in season, and add a straw.

 Cristin, one of the servers, yesterday was asking for a mocktail since she had been envious of the tales she had been hearing. I had been wanting to do something with raspberry syrup and thought about the variation we do on our Always Sunny (rum, raspberry syrup, lime juice, orange bitters, ginger beer). Our mocktail version of that is raspberry syrup and lime juice, crushed ice, and housemade ginger beer. But what if I were to tinker with that in a classic 19th style Fix? Instead of ginger beer, I could use the 2x strength ginger syrup that we dilute to make the soda. And to lengthen the drink as well as smooth it out, I opted for orange juice.
Fixes are very similar to Daisies, but Fixes are rather ornately decorated as was described by Harry Johnson when I wrote about his Brandy Fix. Here, I opted for a triple of the Luxardo cherry, orange peel, and lime peel "grass" that I have garnished Tiki drinks with in solo (along with a sprig of mint or other). Moreover, this garnish reiterates the lime, orange, and fruit notes in the drink. Overall, the Fix was tart, tangy, and spicy, and this flavor complexity made it more of a sipper (than a crushable gone-to-quick glass of juice). Cristin commented that it was "like Sour Patch Kids -- rather tart but sweet" as she gave praise to this Fix.

orange julius

3 1/2 oz Orange Juice
1 1/2 oz Whole Milk (*)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Vanilla Syrup
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with crushed ice, pour into a Collins glass, and top with more crushed ice if needed (shaking with cubed ice and straining into crushed ice would work well too). Garnish with an orange peel or wedge (here, a Siamese flag with 2 cherries), and add a straw.
(*) I have done this recipe without milk with good effect.

Orange Juliuses remind me of my youth when my dad would buy himself, my brother, and me these orange frothy delights at the Trumbull Mall in Connecticut. I remember my dad telling me that the froth was from egg whites which is why I included them in this drink. Initial run-throughs on this recipe with only egg white were rather satisfactory, but the addition of milk seemed to step up the creaminess of the drink. In fact, the combination of dairy and egg white is what is used in Rhiannon Enlil's Rum Julius that she crafted as a Ramos Gin Fizz variation more than a replica of the original. Moreover, while the shopping mall classic utilized a blender, my blender-free bar made me opt for crushed ice. The Siamese flag garnish came about from one of my mocktail drinkers, bartender Matthew Schrage. Well, when he isn't drinking mocktails, he is drinking Tom Collins (often, I start him with a complementary mocktail regardless). To up my game, I reflagged his Tom Collins on one visit after he ate his garnish. Another time, I doubled up his flag mid-drink so he had two. Later, I did the mental geometry to cut an orange disk down a radius and fold it to receive two cherries. To date, I have yet to out-do that Collins' garnish.
Getting past drink history and garnish theory, let's get into the glass itself! The garnish most importantly added fresh orange aromas to the bouquet, and the fruitiness from the Luxardo brand Marasca cherries did not hurt either. The sip was a delightfully tangy, creamy orange and lemon flavor combination, and the swallow continued the citrus idea with a smooth orange and vanilla medley.