All About Cocktail Foamers

A cocktail foamer is an essential tool in the art of a mixologist – the funky “on trend” word for a bartender (we would never have considered Tom Cruise and Brian Brown as mixologists in the 1988 movie Cocktail)

A cocktail foamer helps create elegant frothy layers on drinks to elevate the

presentation and texture of cocktails. Traditionally, foam in cocktails was achieved using egg whites, which not only provided the froth but also added a silky mouthfeel. Today there are many synthetic and natural options to help create your fancy drinks.

Types of Cocktail Foamers

Egg white – the classic and original.

The protein in the egg white helps stabilisze the froth. Advantages are that it is

completely natural, but separating an egg at a busy bar (or if its 6pm on Friday and

your friends are getting rowdy) – and then frothing it so that you can only use ½ and egg white per drink – it all is very tricky. And then what to do with the yolk!

Aqua faba

Easily available and a good excuse to make hummus! Aqua faba is literally water

Chickpeas

(aqua) from the bean (faba). The easiest way to have this natural cocktail foamer is buy a tin of chick peas from the supermarket and drain the fluid from the peas. Then while your contemplate making the hummus (recipe below) you can start shaking up your cocktail.

Advantages are that is is totally natural, easy to access, but it does not have a long shelf life once the tin is open. So unless you are making a lot of cocktails or you can

find a very small tin – there will be a lot of wastage.

There a few companies selling the aqua faba ready to pour such as AquaFab, but again, unless you are making 16 cocktails the shelf life once opened is only 7 days.

Liquid Foamer - Wonderfoam

Wonderfoam

Super quick, easy, and very economical. Using as little as 3-6 drops per drink, a

50ml bottle of Wonderfoam can make more than 330 drinks! 

Wonderfoam is made from the bark of the Chillian Quillaja saponaria tree. But here’s the catch, in order to have a such a long shelf life it also contains the preservative sodium benzoate – which some people just don’t get along with. From my perspective in the cellar door – it’s reliable, easy and economical. I purchase it from Only Bitters which has quickly become one of my favourite on line shops. Check out their great range of Amari, bitter liquors and fancy barware.

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Mallee Nymph

Mallee Nymph

30ml Mallee Spirit Myrtle Gin

30ml Mallee Spirit Lemoncello

30ml lemon juice

30ml simple syrup

4-6 drops Wonderfoam

Place all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice

Shake like crazy

Strain into a beaker, discard the ice and then return to the cocktail shaker and shake

like crazy again

Strain into a sweet little glass and garnish with a few twists of lemon rind

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Mallee Hummus

Mallee Hummus

1½ cups canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed (remember we need the fluid for our

cocktails)

⅓ cup smooth tahini

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste

1 garlic clove

½ teaspoon sea salt

5 tablespoons water, or as needed to blend

Blitz everything together then garnish with paprika, red pepper flakes, chopped cherry tomatoes, cucumber and fresh parsley, Serve with warm pita bread , and/or veggies.