Lester Graham: Uhm, Tammy, (of Tammy's Tastings) you know, I'm not a big fan of egg drinks. You get all that white egg white frothy stuff at the top (YUCK!). You've got a whole egg there. You're going to do one of those?
Tammy Coxen: I am not going to do an egg white drink, Lester. I'm going to do a whole egg drink.
LG: A whole egg?
TC: A whole egg.
LG: We've never done that before.
TC: I don't think I've ever served you a flip before.
LG: A flip. Oh, right. I've heard about flips, but I don't think I've ever had a flip.
TC: So, flips started off, well there was no egg in the first flips. It was just colonial era drink of beer and rum and molasses that was heated up with a hot poker.
LG: Oh, that sounds good.
TC: Yeah. And then they put–
LG: I’m being facetious. (Imagine that. Lester being facetious.)
Tammy: Right. And then and then they decided to put eggs in it and heat all that up with a hot poker.
LG: Okay. Well, I've heard of hot pokers heating up drinks in colonial times, (Wasn't that in 'It's a Wonderful Life' – "So, off with you. lad, and be lively") but this whole concoction sounds a little weird to me.
TC: Well, don't worry. I don't have a hot poker. This is going to be a cold flip.
LG: OK, good. Well, you've got also some Coppercraft apple brandy. I'm not sure whether I've had that before.
TC: We've mixed it into a few cocktails before.
LG: Have we?
TC: Yeah. (Sheesh, Lester, how long have we been doing this?) It's one of my favorite Michigan apple brandies that I've tried, but there actually been a bunch of new ones that have come on the market. So I'm looking forward to exploring.
LG: So, what's this flip called?
TC: This is the Fort Washington flip. It was invented by a bartender named Misty Kalkofen in the Boston area, which is near Fort Washington.
LG: OK, how do you make this? (Seriously, the recipe is at the bottom of the post!)
TC: I'm adding an ounce and a half of the apple brandy to my shaker, along with three quarters of an ounce of Benedictine. That's one of those French herbal liqueurs. And then half an ounce of maple syrup. Crack a whole egg in there. And now I'll shake it up without any ice to start just to get that egg going to get it really mixed in with the other ingredients. And now I'll add ice to it and shake it some more for a good long time because I want to make sure it gets good and frothy and mixed.
TC: All shaken now, so I'm going to pour it into a coupe and garnish it with some freshly grated nutmeg.
LG: Nutmeg? On top? Oh, that's nice. I like nutmeg. (Lester likes nutmeg! Pumpkin spice anyone? Quick, someone tell Starbucks!)
That color is amazing. It's like an ocher color. It's really beautiful. And there is a little froth on top. I guess that's from the egg. But, you know, I'm a little worried.
TC: Let's give it a try.
LG: All right. (Pause as Lester tastes the drink.) Hmm. So, this reminds me a little bit of eggnog with, like a really, really sophisticated eggnog, plus it's not got that kind of sticky thing that eggnog has, I guess that's probably the dairy or dairy-like products in it.
TC: Right. So when we buy eggnog today, we are buying a nonalcoholic product that often has very little actual egg in it and they're using thickeners and gums and things like that. So, that's what gives you that kind of cloying texture on a commercial eggnog. Classically, historically, eggnog was a flip. It was a drink like this with an egg and with whiskey or rum, and then it had some cream added to it. So, we think of eggnog today as nonalcoholic that you can add booze to. But historically, it was the other way around.
LG: Well, this is really good. It's like I said, a little like eggnog, but it's got it's got a lot of sophistication. I assume that's partly the Benedictine.
TC: The Benedictine, the maple syrup, the apple brandy. It all comes together really nicely. It's a little on the dessert side.
LG: Yeah, right. It's sweeter, but in a nice way. (Really? Sweet in a nice way. Very observant, Lester.)
TC:And filling, right? You know, it is kind of luscious and decadent. I taught my eggs class that I call flips, fizzes, sours, and nogs and this was the hit of the class. Everybody who tried it absolutely loved it.
LG: I have to say, there's one thing that I'm not a big fan of, and that's I get that slight bit of egg in my nose. The taste is beautiful, but the odor of raw egg is not exactly appealing to me.
TC: I'll put more nutmeg on yours next time. (Sheesh, Lester. Really, are you THAT sensitive?)
LG: OK, that's sounds like a deal.
TC: That's part of why the nutmeg is there. It covers up any kind of off odors. And there's something about nutmeg and egg yolk that they kind of counteract each other. So the nutmeg will mellow out that egg yolk character.
LG: Well, it really is delicious and I'm very pleasantly surprised. (Huh. Lester likes another Cheers drink? Amazing.)
Fort Washington Flip
1 1/2 oz apple brandy (Coppercraft)
3/4 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz maple syrup
1 whole egg
Garnish: grated nutmeg
Combine ingredients in shaker without ice. Shake for 10 seconds to break up egg. Add ice and shake very well for 15 seconds. Strain into coupe or martini glass. Garnish.
(Created by Misty Kalkofen in Boston.)
Tammy Coxen and Lester Graham are the authors of Cheers to Michigan: A Celebration of Cocktail Culture and Craft Distillers from the University of Michigan Press. The book is based on the Cheers! episodes heard on Michigan Radio.
