There’s an old saying that goes: “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” A better modern adaptation might be “suggest 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 American Colonial era’s flip and the posset. 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 it’s 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 desserts, popping up in 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 get the beans.

As an added bonus, aquafaba has a better shelf life than eggs and a much, much lower threshold for salmonella contamination, all of which just goes to show you that sometimes a shortage can lead to a better adaptation.

To that end, I offer three traditional egg white cocktails reimagined with aquafaba — and spirits from Novato’s Alamere and Tempus Fugit and Sebastopol’s Spirit Works, as well as from Sausalito Liquor Co., maker of Unsinkable Rye.

Luxardo Italian cherry products, by the way, 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.

Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II” and host of the Barfly Podcast. Follow him at jeffburkhart. net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com

Ramos Fizz

INGREDIENTS

1½ 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 Small orange wheel, sliced halfway through Freshly grated nutmeg

DIRECTIONS Combine the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.

Shake until it’s frothy and cold, 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.

Whiskey Sour

INGREDIENTS

1½ 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 the 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.

Sloe Gin Fizz

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces Spirit Works Sloe Gin

½ ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

1½ ounces fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice

½ ounce simple syrup

1 ounce aquafaba Splash of sparkling water

2 Luxardo cherries

DIRECTIONS Combine the first five 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.