Sherry Flip

A Sherry Flip is made with cream sherry, light cream, powdered sugar, and a whole egg, shaken vigorously and strained into a Nick and Nora glass, finished with a dusting of nutmeg. The whole egg gives the flip its characteristic silky body and light foam, while the cream sherry provides a rich, oxidative sweetness.

Flips are among the oldest cocktail categories, with roots in seventeenth-century England where beer, spirit, and eggs were heated together with a hot poker. The modern cold flip — shaken rather than heated — developed through the nineteenth century and remains a distinguished category defined by the inclusion of whole egg.

Cream sherry's sweetness and richness complement the egg and light cream without requiring additional sweetener beyond the powdered sugar, creating a naturally balanced, dessert-like result. Dry sherry would produce a sharper, more austere flip that lacks the rounded, indulgent character associated with the style.