Sours · Cognac · IBA official
Cognac's dried fruit and oak, sweet orange from the triple sec and sharp lemon come together in a drink that is rich and refreshing at once. A thin sugar rim softens each sip, if you like your sour a touch rounder.
1¾ oz
cognac
¾ oz
triple sec Cointreau is the usual choice
¾ oz
lemon juice freshly squeezed
1 tsp
sugar for the rim (optional)
Garnish: Orange twist, sugar rim optional · Ice: Served up, no ice
Sidecar
Bright and tart with ripe orange, dried fruit and a warm cognac finish. Silky, strong and very well balanced.
The Sidecar appears in print in 1922 in two London books: Harry MacElhone's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails and Robert Vermeire's Cocktails: How to Mix Them. Both gave it as equal parts brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice. Vermeire noted that it was very popular in France, and the early sources connect it with Pat MacGarry, the bartender at Buck's Club in London.
The most repeated story says it was named after an army officer who arrived at a Paris bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle. It is a good tale, but nobody has been able to prove it.
The drink belongs to the family of sours with orange liqueur, closely related to the older Brandy Crusta and to later drinks such as the Margarita and the White Lady. Over time bartenders moved away from equal parts toward a more cognac-heavy ratio, as in today's IBA specification.
The IBA uses 50 ml cognac, 20 ml triple sec and 20 ml lemon juice. The original 1922 recipes used equal parts.
No. The rim is optional; it softens the tartness, but many bartenders serve it without.
Yes. Any good grape brandy works; cognac simply gives the classic, more refined profile.
The perfect sound
Roaring twenties glamour in a sugared glass.
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