Left Hand
A Left Hand is 45ml of bourbon, 22.5ml of Campari, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth and three dashes of chocolate bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, finished with an orange twist. About 2.7 UK units. It is a Boulevardier with cacao in it and less of the bitter and the vermouth. It is Sam Ross’s drink, from the New York bar Milk & Honey, made most likely in 2007 as the pair to Michael McIlroy’s Right Hand, though some sources date it to 2006. His version used Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters, then new on the market, and a cherry. The chocolate sits between the bourbon’s vanilla and the Campari’s bitter orange, so the two taste joined. Pulling the Campari and vermouth back to 22.5ml each leaves the bitters room to be tasted.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Orange twist and Maraschino cherry on a pick
Ingredients
45ml
Bourbon at 40% ABV or a little stronger. Its vanilla is what the cacao joins up with, and a higher-rye bottling keeps more backbone against the Campari.
22.5ml
Campari at 25% ABV, or a similar red bitter. At 22.5ml rather than the Boulevardier’s 30ml, it frames the bourbon without covering the bitters.
22.5ml
An Italian-style sweet vermouth at around 16% ABV. Carpano Antica Formula, rich with vanilla, suits the cacao. Opened bottles go in the fridge and last about a month.
3 dashes
Plain chocolate bitters for dry cacao, or mole bitters, as Ross used, for cacao with cinnamon and spice. Three dashes is enough for the cacao to show.
Instructions
Chill a Nick and Nora glass.
Add the bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth and chocolate bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in, or garnish with a cherry on a pick.
Source: Difford's Guide (Difford’s measures, adapted from Sam Ross’s original, which Difford’s dates to 2006; three dashes of chocolate bitters where Ross used mole bitters; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Chocolate or mole bitters, three dashes either way. Ross used mole bitters, which bring cinnamon and spice with the cacao; plain chocolate bitters give dry cacao on its own. Both suit the drink. Past three dashes, their bitterness stacks on the Campari’s. Stir for 20 to 30 seconds over cubed ice. Campari and sweet vermouth are both sweet, and an under-diluted Left Hand turns syrupy and hides the cacao. Store the vermouth cold. It makes up a quarter of the glass, and oxidised vermouth tastes of stewed fruit.
Behind the Left Hand
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Sam Ross came up with the Left Hand at Milk & Honey, Sasha Petraske’s bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, most likely in 2007; some sources date it a year earlier. He is better known for the Penicillin and the Paper Plane.
Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters had just come on the market, and Ross is reported to have described the result as a cross between a Negroni and a Manhattan. Ross made it as the pair to the Right Hand, an aged-rum drink Michael McIlroy had created at the same bar in 2007.
What the Cacao Does
A Boulevardier has a gap in it. The bourbon gives vanilla, caramel and oak; Campari brings bitter orange; sweet vermouth adds weight and sugar between them. The bourbon and the Campari never quite meet.
Cacao is dry, a little bitter and faintly fruity, which fits that gap. Add three dashes and the vanilla runs into the chocolate, and the chocolate into the orange. It reads as depth more than as chocolate.
The Trim
The IBA Boulevardier takes 30ml each of Campari and sweet vermouth against 45ml of bourbon. The Left Hand cuts both to 22.5ml.
Campari and sweet vermouth are sweet and loud. At 30ml each they bury a few dashes of bitters; at 22.5ml the bourbon leads and the cacao comes through.
Left Hand, Right Hand and Boulevardier
Left Hand
- Base
- 45ml bourbon
- Campari
- 22.5ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 22.5ml
- Bitters
- Three dashes chocolate
- Served
- Up, Nick and Nora
Right Hand
- Base
- 45ml aged rum
- Campari
- 22.5ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 22.5ml
- Bitters
- Three dashes chocolate
- Served
- Up, Nick and Nora
Boulevardier
- Base
- 45ml bourbon
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Bitters
- None
- Served
- Over ice, rocks glass
| Drink | Base | Campari | Sweet vermouth | Bitters | Served |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left Hand | 45ml bourbon | 22.5ml | 22.5ml | Three dashes chocolate | Up, Nick and Nora |
| Right Hand | 45ml aged rum | 22.5ml | 22.5ml | Three dashes chocolate | Up, Nick and Nora |
| Boulevardier | 45ml bourbon | 30ml | 30ml | None | Over ice, rocks glass |
Swap the bourbon for aged rum and you have the Right Hand. Restore the full measures and leave out the bitters, and you are back at the Boulevardier.
How to Serve It
Stirred and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora or coupe, with an orange twist expressed and dropped in, or a cherry on a pick. Drink it after dinner.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)Bourbon is an American whiskey whose mash is at least 51% corn, matured in fresh charred oak barrels and bottled at 40% ABV or higher, the figure our recipes use. The fresh charred wood gives it its vanilla, caramel and colour, and the corn gives a rounder, sweeter spirit than rye. It is the base of 26 of our recipes, more than any other whiskey.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Left Hand cocktail?
What do the chocolate bitters do?
Mole bitters or chocolate bitters?
What is a Right Hand?
How is it different from a Boulevardier?
How strong is a Left Hand?
Cherry or orange twist?
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Boulevardier
A Boulevardier is 45ml bourbon, 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with orange peel. It is the bourbon Negroni: the same Campari and vermouth with bourbon in place of gin, and that one change makes it warmer and rounder. About 3.0 UK units. It first appeared in print in Barflies and Cocktails, published in Paris in 1927, where Harry MacElhone of Harry’s New York Bar credited it to Erskine Gwynne, an American writer who ran a monthly magazine called Boulevardier. The 1927 recipe was equal parts. The measures here are the IBA’s, with the bourbon ahead of the other two. Equal parts works well with a lighter vermouth. Against a rich one such as Carpano Antica Formula, the extra 15ml of bourbon keeps the drink from turning heavy.
Right Hand
A Right Hand is 45ml of aged rum, 22.5ml of Campari, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth and three dashes of chocolate bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick & Nora, with an orange twist. About 2.7 UK units. Michael McIlroy created it at Milk & Honey in New York in 2007, a rum drink on the Negroni’s frame. Sam Ross, from the same bar, answered it with the Left Hand on bourbon, and the two have been poured as a pair since. Both are usually traced to the arrival that year of a mole-style chocolate bitters from Bittermens. Campari is a hard partner for rum. A light rum disappears under it. An aged rum with oak and dried fruit holds its ground, the vermouth softens the join, and the cacao in the bitters links the dark sugar to the bitter orange.
Negroni
A Negroni is 30ml each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with an orange peel expressed over the top. About 2.4 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the IBA builds the drink in the glass and garnishes it with half an orange slice. The usual story puts it in Florence in 1919, at the Caffè Casoni, where the bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have replaced the soda in Count Camillo Negroni’s Americano with gin. No record from the time backs it. Equal parts of the three first appear in a French bar book of 1929, and the name Negroni reaches print for a cocktail in 1947. Each third has a job. Gin gives strength and juniper, Campari bitterness and orange, and the vermouth body and sugar. With no juice or soda in the glass, a tired vermouth shows at once.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026