Sidecar Recipe
Sidecar Ingredients
2 oz / 60 ml Cognac
.75 oz / 22 ml Orange liqueur (Grand Marnier)
.75 oz / 22 ml Fresh lemon juice
2-3 dashes aromatic bitters (Earl Grey bitters if you have them)
Sugar, for the rim (optional — or a splash of demerara syrup instead)
How to make a Sidecar
If rimming the glass, wet the rim of a coupe glass with a lemon wedge and dip in sugar. Add the cognac, orange liqueur, lemon juice, and bitters to a shaker with ice. Shake well and double strain into the prepared glass.
The Sidecar's exact origin is one of cocktail history's genuine disputes: some credit it to Pat MacGarry, bartender at London's Buck's Club, as recorded in early editions of Harry MacElhone's cocktail book (though MacElhone later claimed it himself); others trace it to an American army captain in Paris who rode to the bar in a motorcycle sidecar, or to the Ritz Hotel Paris. Whoever invented it, it was well-established by the early 1920s and remains one of the great cognac sours — bright, citrusy, and simple enough that the cognac still leads.
