Bartender's Manual by Theodore Proulx (1888, p.38) — Theodore Proulx 1888
- Cool a thin glass full of fine ice.
- Shake the lemon juice, sugar, brandy, egg white, and a few lumps of ice.
- Strain into the cooled glass, add half a bottle of imported ginger ale, and stir up with a spoon.
Ice: Fine ice
- Summary
- A brightened egg-white brandy long drink that sits between fizz, cooler, and dairy-free snow styles.
Snow Ball is useful because it captures a late-nineteenth-century sparkling egg-white branch that does not fit neatly into one later category.
The pre-cooled receiving glass and final ginger-ale stir are part of the intended texture.
Compared with Sea Foam, this is spirituous and structured; compared with Golden Fizz, it is longer and ginger-ale shaped.
The Mixicologist by C. F. Lawlor (1895, p.62) — C. F. Lawlor 1895
- Place on the bar a large lemonade glass full of fine ice.
- Put the sugar, whiskey, and white of one egg in a mixing glass and fill three fourths with fine ice.
- Shake well and strain into the lemonade glass after throwing out the ice.
- Then fill with imported ginger ale.
- Nose
- Ginger, whiskey, and light egg froth rise together.
- Palate
- It sits in an intriguing space between fizz, daisy, and highball logic, with ginger ale replacing plain soda and egg white lending texture.
- Finish
- The finish is gingery, airy, and lightly grainy.
- Summary
- A useful hybrid sparkling drink showing the era's willingness to mix categories in practical rather than doctrinaire ways.
Snow Ball is exactly the sort of hybrid that makes strict modern taxonomies look inadequate. It helps prove that family evolution often proceeds through overlap and improvisational adjacency rather than clean category jumps.
The chilled receiving glass and ginger-ale finish are both central to the drink's texture and character.
Compared with La Casino Fizz, this is whiskey-and-ginger rather than citrus-and-seltzer-led. Compared with Whiskey Daisy, the egg white gives it a different texture and identity.