The PDT Project: Apricot Flip

For the uninitiated, the term "flip" refers to a category of alcoholic drinks that involve a whole raw egg as an ingredient. So the Egg Nog is essentially a flip. Flips used to refer to hot beverages that had beer in them, whereby a hot poker was taken straight from the fire and dunked into the drink to heat it up, resulting in a drink with a frothy head of foam.

That was a couple hundred years ago during the colonial days. Beer was eventually replaced by an egg as the foam-producing element and flips went from being hot drinks to ones shaken with ice. Maybe the combination of drunkards and hot pokers proved too unwieldy, and you certainly wouldn't want to insert a hot poker in an egg drink, unless you like scrambled eggs in your cocktail.

Apricot Flip
2 oz. Hine V.S.O.P. Cognac
.75 oz. Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
.5 oz. simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)
1 whole organic egg
Fresh nutmeg to grate as garnish

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glassware: fizz glass

Method: Add all ingredients to a shaker and dry-shake (means to shake without ice). Add ice and shake again until well chilled. Strain into a fizz glass and grate some nutmeg on top as garnish.

The use of egg gives the flip a heavier body than your standard shaken cocktail, which makes it an ideal post-prandial potion during fall and winter evenings, or even on an unusually chilly summer night.

I know there are many out there who shriek at the thought of drinking something with raw egg, so as I've said in the past, get over it. Use fresh eggs from a reliable source and you'll have nothing to worry about. This is not Bangladesh circa 1825, nor Bangladesh circa now for that matter (unless you're actually reading this from Bangladesh). If you live in a major modern city then you have access to a market that sells quality eggs, and if you live in the country, well, you probably have your own chickens out back. Seriously, you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning during a terrorist attack than you do of getting salmonella poisoning from raw eggs.

*This post is part of a series in which Payman takes on the task of making and writing about every cocktail featured in the PDT Cocktail Book, as well as providing an awesome photo of each drink taken by Vanessa Bahmani Photography.

**Got a question? He can be found on twitter @paystyle, you can email him at payman@pdtproject.com, or simply drop him a comment below.