Amaretto Sour

Novice

The Amaretto Sour has a reputation problem that is entirely the fault of the versions most people have encountered. The standard bar version, amaretto and sour mix from a gun or bottled lemon juice, is sweet, flat, and devoid of the complexity a properly built version achieves. That gap has led many serious drinkers to write the drink off entirely, which is a mistake worth correcting. The version documented here builds on the approach developed by American bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who recognised that amaretto’s lower ABV and high residual sweetness require structural support from a higher-proof spirit. Cask-strength bourbon at 22.5ml provides that support without dominating the amaretto’s almond and stone fruit character: its proof adds structural weight, its vanilla and caramel complement the amaretto’s sweetness, and its spice provides a counterpoint that stops the drink becoming one-dimensional. Egg white is optional in deference to those who prefer to avoid it, but it is strongly recommended here. With it, the foam carries the amaretto’s almond aromatics at the nose before the lemon acid and bourbon spice arrive at the palate, and that sequence is what the drink is designed to deliver.

High-ABVShakenAperitifAfter-DinnerCelebratoryClassic

Glassware: Rocks Glass

Garnish: Maraschino Cherry and Angostura Bitters pattern

Ingredients

Serves

Amaretto

50ml

Disaronno is the most widely available benchmark. A quality amaretto with genuine almond and stone fruit character rather than an artificially flavoured substitute. The lead ingredient and the one that defines the drink's identity.

Cask-strength bourbon

22.5ml

Typically between 60% and 65% ABV depending on the producer. Provides the structural backbone and proof that amaretto alone cannot deliver. Knob Creek Single Barrel or Wild Turkey Rare Breed are reliable choices. A standard proof bourbon will not provide the same structural support.

Fresh lemon juice

25ml

Squeezed immediately before use. The acid backbone that cuts through the amaretto's sweetness and keeps the drink from becoming cloying. At this volume it is the most critical variable in the balance.

Simple syrup

7.5ml

One part white sugar dissolved in one part warm water. A modest measure given the amaretto's own residual sweetness. Taste the finished drink before adding more.

Egg white

10ml

Optional but strongly recommended. Dry shake first without ice to build the foam, then shake again with ice. The foam carries the amaretto's almond aromatics at the nose before the lemon and bourbon arrive at the palate.

Angostura Bitters

3 drops

Dotted onto the surface of the foam in a pattern immediately before serving. Provides a spice and aromatic top note that bridges the amaretto and the bourbon at the nose.

Instructions

Squeeze lemon juice immediately before building the drink.

Chill a rocks glass or coupe in the freezer or with ice water.

If using egg white, add it to the shaker alone and dry shake vigorously for 15 seconds before adding any other ingredient.

Add amaretto, cask-strength bourbon, fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and egg white to the shaker.

Dry shake all ingredients together without ice for a further 15 seconds.

Add a scoop of cubed ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.

Double strain into the chilled glass.

Dot Angostura bitters onto the surface of the foam in a pattern immediately before serving.

Drop or place the Luxardo cherry in or on the glass and serve immediately.

Expert Tip

The cask-strength bourbon is not interchangeable with a standard-proof one. At 22.5ml, a 40% bourbon contributes about 9ml of pure alcohol to the build; a cask-strength bourbon at 63% contributes about 14ml. That difference is the structural backbone the recipe depends on. If cask strength is unavailable, increase a standard bourbon to 35ml and accept a slightly less structured result. Dry shake twice, which is unusual and deliberate. The egg white goes in alone for fifteen seconds first, then everything together for another fifteen, then hard with ice. That builds a denser foam than a single dry shake manages. Dot the Angostura onto the foam immediately before serving. It sits on the surface as an aromatic top note rather than mixing in, and it bridges the amaretto's almond and the bourbon's spice at the nose.

Flavour Profile

AlmondCitrusVanillaSweetAromatic

The Reputation Problem

The standard bar version, amaretto combined with pre-made sour mix or bottled lemon juice and served without egg white, is genuinely poor: sweet without complexity, citrus without brightness. Ordered and found disappointing often enough, it attached a reputation for simplicity and sweetness that the properly built version does not deserve. The version documented here is a different drink in every meaningful respect. Fresh lemon juice provides real acid brightness, cask-strength bourbon provides backbone and spice, and egg white provides texture and a foam that changes the aromatic experience of every sip. The result is complex, balanced, and recognisably built around the amaretto’s almond and stone fruit character without being defined by its sweetness.

The Morgenthaler Contribution

Jeffrey Morgenthaler, a Portland-based bartender, published his approach to the Amaretto Sour in 2012 and rehabilitated a drink serious bartenders had dismissed for decades. His insight was structural. The problem was not the amaretto, a genuinely interesting liqueur when used correctly, but the absence of anything in the build with enough proof and spice to provide the backbone a sour format requires. Cask-strength bourbon at a modest volume addressed that directly without changing the drink’s identity: it supports the amaretto rather than dominating it, while the almond and stone fruit character continues to define the drink’s personality. The combination is greater than either ingredient achieves alone.

Amaretto and Its Character

Amaretto is an Italian liqueur produced from apricot kernels, bitter almonds, or both, sweetened to a level considerably higher than most liqueurs. The name derives from the Italian amaro, meaning bitter, though the finished product is far sweeter than that origin suggests. The bitterness comes from the amygdalin in the kernels and almonds, a flavour compound shared with marzipan, cherry pits, and Luxardo Maraschino, which explains why the Luxardo cherry works so naturally as a garnish here. Disaronno is the most widely available quality amaretto and performs well in this format; Lazzaroni, the other widely available Italian producer, has a slightly more almond-forward, less sweet character that produces a marginally drier result in the same recipe.

The Egg White Case

The argument for egg white is stronger here than in most sours because the foam serves a purpose specific to this drink. Amaretto’s dominant almond and stone fruit aromatics are carried efficiently by the fat and protein structure of the foam in a way that the more volatile citrus and alcohol aromatics of a conventional sour are not, so the foam is genuinely aromatic where a standard Whiskey Sour’s is not. The Angostura bitters dotted over the surface reinforce the effect, producing a top note of combined almond, bourbon spice, and Angostura gentian that makes the first sip more layered than the liquid alone would produce.

How to Serve It

Shaken with a committed dry shake and double strained into a chilled rocks glass or coupe, with Angostura bitters dotted over the foam and a Luxardo cherry in or alongside the glass. Serve it to those who have dismissed the Amaretto Sour on the basis of the versions they have previously encountered. The gap between what they expect and what a properly built version delivers is wide enough to change their opinion of the drink entirely. Build it properly every time.

The Spirit

Amaretto

An Italian liqueur that tastes of almond and is traditionally made from apricot kernels rather than almonds. The compound responsible is the same one behind maraschino, which is why two very different bottles smell related.

Learn more

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Amaretto Sour?

Amaretto and lemon in the sour format, built here with cask-strength bourbon and egg white. Done properly it is complex and balanced, built around amaretto’s almond and stone fruit character rather than defined by its sweetness.

Why add bourbon?

Amaretto's low ABV and high residual sweetness need structural support that the liqueur cannot supply on its own. Following Jeffrey Morgenthaler's 2012 approach, cask-strength bourbon at 22.5ml adds proof, weight and spice, supporting the amaretto without dominating it or changing the drink's identity.

Is the egg white worth it?

More than in most sours: amaretto’s almond aromatics are carried efficiently by the foam’s fat and protein, so the top note is genuinely aromatic. The Angostura dotted over it adds bourbon spice and gentian to the first sip.

Master the Techniques

How to Shake a Cocktail Like a Pro

Honey Sour

The Whiskey Sour is one of the most accommodating formats in the canon, because its three-ingredient structure takes sweetener variations that produce meaningfully different drinks rather than mere substitutions. The Honey Sour is the most instructive of them. Replacing simple syrup with honey syrup changes the texture, the aromatic character, the mid-palate weight and the relationship between the bourbon and the lemon, which is enough to justify a separate entry rather than a footnote. Honey brings a floral, slightly waxy sweetness with genuine botanical depth that simple syrup does not possess, and it interacts with the vanilla and caramel of a good bourbon in a way that makes the pairing taste considered rather than incidental. The egg white is optional here as it is in the parent, and the decision changes the drink considerably. With it the Honey Sour is silky and rounded; without it, sharper and more directly tart. Both are correct.

Paper Plane

The Paper Plane was created by Sam Ross at Milk & Honey in New York around 2007 and named after the M.I.A. song that was playing while he developed it. It is an equal-parts build of bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and fresh lemon juice, shaken and served cold, and it stands as one of the most precisely constructed modern classics in the canon. Equal parts is an unforgiving format. Every ingredient is fully exposed at the same volume, and a weak choice in any one of them changes the character of the finished drink in a way no adjustment elsewhere can correct. The bourbon provides warmth and vanilla. The Aperol provides bitter orange and a lightness that stops the drink turning heavy. The Nonino provides herbal complexity and a mid-palate depth neither of the others could contribute. The lemon holds all three together. Substituting a cheaper amaro for Nonino is the most common mistake made with this recipe, and the one that most visibly changes the result.

Bee’s Knees

The Bee’s Knees is a gin sour built on honey syrup instead of sugar, documented in the early 1920s and born of a practical problem. Prohibition gin was frequently terrible, and honey and lemon are both strongly flavoured enough to cover for a spirit that needed covering for. What makes it worth making now is the inversion. The combination chosen to hide a bad gin turns out to be exceptionally good at showing off a good one, because honey and gin occupy overlapping territory. Gin is defined by botanicals; honey is itself a botanical product, its character set by whatever the bees visited. The honey does not simply sweeten the gin, it extends it in a register the gin already occupies. Three ingredients, no egg, nothing complicated. Built with a proper London Dry and a properly made honey syrup it is brighter and more layered than the ingredient list has any right to suggest.