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.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lemon Peel
Ingredients
30ml
A bourbon with enough vanilla and caramel character to hold its own against the Aperol and Nonino without overwhelming the lemon juice. Four Roses Yellow Label performs well here.
30ml
Brings bitter orange, lightness and colour, and there is no meaningful substitute in this structure. At a quarter of the glass it is doing as much work as the bourbon, which is the point of an equal-parts build.
30ml
Nonino is not interchangeable with a cheaper amaro in this drink. It brings herbal complexity, dried fruit, and a mid-palate depth the structure depends on.
30ml
Squeezed immediately before use. The acid backbone that holds all three spirits in balance. Pre-squeezed juice will flatten the drink.
Instructions
Squeeze lemon juice immediately before building the drink.
Chill a coupe in the freezer or with ice water.
Add bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and fresh lemon juice to a shaker with a scoop of cubed ice.
Shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
Express the lemon peel over the surface of the drink and rest on the rim.
Serve immediately.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; method ours). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
The equal-parts format leaves no room to compensate for a poor ingredient by adjusting the ratio. If the drink tastes flat or unbalanced, identify which ingredient is underperforming before you change the proportions. In most cases it is the amaro, which has been substituted, or the lemon juice, which was not squeezed fresh. Fix the ingredient rather than the build. Squeeze the lemon immediately before you shake. Thirty millilitres is a quarter of the drink, and pre-squeezed juice goes flat within about an hour, which reads here as a drink that has lost its edges. Shake hard and double strain. Twelve to fifteen seconds against good cubed ice, into a coupe that has been in the freezer. Three of the four ingredients are low-proof, so the drink needs proper chilling to feel finished rather than merely cold.
Behind the Paper Plane
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Sam Ross was bartending at Milk & Honey on Eldridge Street in New York when he developed the Paper Plane in the mid-2000s. Milk & Honey was the bar that Sasha Petraske had opened in 1999 and that became one of the defining venues of the cocktail revival, known for its no-walk-ins policy, its commitment to technique, and its influence on a generation of bartenders who passed through it and carried its standards elsewhere. Ross was one of them. The Paper Plane is the drink that most visibly demonstrates what that environment produced.
He named it after the M.I.A. track that was playing during the development process, a detail that grounds the drink in a specific cultural moment without diminishing it. The song and the drink share a quality of controlled energy, something that moves quickly and precisely without appearing to try very hard. The Paper Plane has been on menus in serious cocktail bars around the world ever since it was first served and shows no signs of leaving.
The Last Word Inheritance
Ross has been direct about his inspiration. The Last Word, a Prohibition-era equal-parts build of gin, green Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino, and fresh lime juice, provided the structural template. The Paper Plane takes the same format, four ingredients in equal measure, shaken with fresh citrus, and translates it into a contemporary American idiom: bourbon in place of gin, Aperol in place of Chartreuse, Amaro Nonino in place of maraschino, lemon in place of lime.
The parallel is close enough to be instructive. Tasting the Last Word and the Paper Plane in sequence reveals both the consistency of the equal-parts format across different ingredient sets and the distinct character that each combination produces. The Last Word is herbal, sharp, and slightly medicinal. The Paper Plane is warmer, more fruit-forward, and more immediately approachable. Both are precisely balanced. Both are unforgiving of substitutions.
The Nonino Requirement
Amaro Nonino Quintessentia is produced in Friuli in northeastern Italy from a grappa base infused with a proprietary blend of herbs, roots, and fruit, then aged in oak. It is lighter in body and more delicate in character than most Italian amari, with a dried fruit and herbal complexity that sits at a different register from the more assertive bitterness of products like Campari or Fernet-Branca. In the Paper Plane, that delicacy is structural. The Aperol provides the bitterness. The Nonino provides the herbal depth and the mid-palate weight that bridges the bourbon and the citrus without competing with either.
Substituting a cheaper or more assertive amaro shifts the balance of the drink in a direction it was not designed for. The bitterness increases. The delicacy disappears. The four-way coherence that makes the equal-parts format work in this recipe depends on the specific character of Nonino and not on amaro as a category. Use the correct ingredient.
How to Serve It
Shaken and double strained into a chilled coupe with expressed lemon peel over the surface. This is a drink that works in multiple contexts, light enough for pre-dinner consumption but structured enough to hold its own after a meal. The bourbon gives it enough warmth and body to suit cold weather. The Aperol and lemon give it enough brightness and acidity to suit warm weather equally well. It is one of the few modern classics with genuine seasonal versatility, and that range is part of what has kept it on menus for nearly two decades.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)The only major whiskey required to use a barrel once. New charred oak is the rule that defines bourbon, gives it its sweetness and colour, and incidentally supplies most of the world's Scotch and rum with somewhere to age.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Paper Plane?
How does it relate to the Last Word?
Can I swap the Amaro Nonino?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits