There’s an old saying that goes: “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” However, a better modern adaptation might be “suggest that there’s a mousetrap shortage, and the world will create one for you.”
Proof of this is the great egg shortage of 2025, not to be confused with the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, or the great Chartreuse shortage of 2024. But this one’s real — or real enough, judging by the barricaded doors of the empty egg cooler at Costco.
Eggs and cocktails have a long history. Some of the earliest cocktails were the flip and the posset of the Colonial period in America. Both are essentially warmed eggnogs mixed with spirits. Eventually, these warmed eggnogs transitioned into the chilled versions so predominant today — I suspect that happened when refrigeration created safer eggs and ready ice — just as cocktails transitioned from batched “punches” to individualized beverages. It has even been suggested that the name “cocktail” is derived from the rooster-shaped egg cup, called a “coquetier,” which was reportedly used to serve mixed drinks in the early 1800s. Those coquetiers are still around — soft boiled eggs anyone? — and they suspiciously hold exactly 2 ounces, the perfect measurement for those first mixed drinks that came without ice.
So, when eggs approach $1 each, what’s a cocktail enthusiast supposed to do? What we always do: We substitute. And luckily for us, the substitution has been around for quite some time. It’s called aquafaba, or “bean water,” and is the clear liquid that canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are stored in.
“Doesn’t that taste like beans?” someone is sure to ask.
The fact is that it doesn’t, or more correctly, that it doesn’t enough to matter in a cocktail. What aquafaba does do is provide the emulsifying action and weight that egg whites do. It has long been a staple in vegan cooking, especially for desserts, everything from chocolate mousse to lemon meringue.
A 15-ounce can of garbanzo beans will yield about 5 ounces — give or take — of liquid equivalent to about four eggs. A typical can of garbanzo beans costs about $1, and can be had for much less if purchased in bulk, which means that it was already far more cost effective than the egg ever was. And that’s just for the liquid, not to mention that you also have the beans, too.
As an added bonus, aquafaba has a better shelf life than eggs and has a much, much lower threshold for salmonella contamination, all of which just goes to show you that sometimes a shortage — artificial or not — can lead you to a better adaptation.
To that end, I offer three traditional egg white cocktails reimagined with aquafaba. All have been localized for your consumption.
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com
Recipes
Ramos Fizz
Ingredients
1 ½ ounces Alamere London Dry Gin
1 ounce heavy cream, or heavy cream alternative
½ ounce fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup
1 ounce aquafaba
Freshly grated nutmeg
Small orange wheel, sliced halfway through
Directions
Combine all liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until it’s frothy and cold, and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Hang the orange wheel on the rim of the glass using the cut slit, and dust with nutmeg.
Note: Meyer lemons have a slight orangish flavor, which works better in this drink than either the traditional orange flower water or straight orange juice.
Whiskey Sour
Ingredients
1 ½ ounces Unsinkable Rye Whiskey
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
1 ounce aquafaba
2 Tempus Fugit candied cherries
Directions
Combine all liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until cold and foamy. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Skewer cherries with a long wooden pick — long enough to traverse the serving glass — and place across the top.
Note: Aquafaba foams more easily than egg white when it’s cold, so there’s no need to add a “dry shake” (without ice) before assembling.
Tempus Fugit is a spirits import company known for its eclectic products. Long located in Petaluma, it now calls Novato home.
Sloe Gin Fizz
Ingredients
2 ounces Spirit Works Sloe Gin
½ ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
1 ½ ounces fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup
1 ounce aquafaba
Splash of sparkling water
2 Luxardo cherries
Directions
Combine the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until cold and foamy. Strain into an ice-filled serving glass and top with soda water.
Skewer cherries with a long wooden pick — long enough to traverse the serving glass — and place across the top.
Note: Sloe gin is not made with gin. Instead, it’s a liqueur made from the fruit (or berry) of the blackthorn bush, a relative of the rose, which is more commonly called the sloe.
Luxardo Italian cherry products are now imported by Hotaling and Co., the company formally known as Anchor Distilling. The ruined stone steps of Richard Hotaling’s stately Marin mansion — the only thing left — are located in San Anselmo, just past the entrance to San Domenico School.