Eater Discovers Vegan Egg Whites, Makes Cocktails

In a recent feature, food website Eater uncovered the egg white-like properties of vegan “secret ingredient” aquafaba—Latin for “bean water” or the soaking liquid found in cans of beans, most popularly in chickpeas. The site touted the benefits of the vegan egg white stating, that “In a cocktail, not only does aquafaba mimic the foam and silkiness of an egg white, but surpasses it.” Eater spoke with bartenders of several restaurants—namely, recently veganized Mother of Pearl, Los Angeles’ Gracias Madre, and newly-opened Gratitude in Newport Beach—who praised the benefits of using aquafaba in place of egg whites in traditional cocktails. Bartender Gabriella Mlynarczyk of Los Angeles restaurant Birch uses the “magical liquid” in her whiskey sours and said it mimics the texture and flavor of egg whites while being “beautiful and airy.” Aquafaba—which received wide coverage by media outlets such as Cooks Illustrated, The Washington Post, and The Guardian— was discovered in 2015 by French opera performer Joël Roessel and later popularized in the United States by vegan home cook and software engineer Goose Wohlt through a Facebook group entitled “Vegan Meringue-Hits and Misses!”