Aquafaba can help make luxuriously creamy cocktails
There’s something extra special about a foamy cocktail. Sipping a cool tart drink through that frothy, marshmallowy top layer makes you feel like a kid at the soda fountain. But the thought of raw egg whites (both separating them and consuming them) can be a bit off-putting.
Along comes aquafaba, the sexy made-up name for the not-so-sexy liquid that comes in cans of chickpeas. Derived from the Latin term for “bean water,” aquafaba was made famous in 2015, when an American software engineer named Goose Wohlt posted his discovery on social media and vegans and their friends began frenetically whipping chickpea brine and adding the resulting meringuelike foam to — everything.
After surprising myself by creating a successful aquafaba chocolate mousse, I decided to leap into mixology. Would my leftover chickpea liquid make a frothy cocktail as pretty, creamy and delightful as an egg white does?
Remarkably and resoundingly, yes. I added the aquafaba to a pisco sour on a recent warm night, using exactly the same proportion and technique (more on that later) as I would with an egg white. My drink came out topped with a silky foam, without a hint of unpleasant eggy-ness of course, but also without any trace of beany flavor or aroma. The tiny bit of salt in the brine boosted the flavor of the citrus and liquor.
More good news: You can use the liquid from freshly cooked (Instant Pot users and hummus lovers, take note) or canned chickpeas, and it freezes beautifully if you want to save your cocktail adventures for a later date.
The technique is simple. Replace 1 egg white (1 fluid ounce) in your favorite cocktail recipe with 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) aquafaba. We recommend a “dry shake,” which means shaking all the ingredients without ice for 10-15 seconds before adding ice and shaking again. The dry shake allows the proteins in the egg/aquafaba to be broken down a bit by the acid and liquor to better emulsify the drink before chilling. Now go ahead and create a Ramos gin fizz, Clover Club, pisco sour, sloe gin fizz or any other cocktail recipe that calls for egg white.
We created a template for successful aquafaba sour cocktails. Feel free to get creative with different combinations of liquor and citrus. (And if you are out of aquafaba, a fresh egg white will do!)