Learning to Love the Sidecar

I've been making my way through Cocktail Codex, a wonderful book that breaks cocktails down to six core recipes. The #sidecar is one of those six core recipes. The others are an Old Fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Whiskey Highball, and Flip. I find the sidecar to be one of the more interesting drinks of the six because I don't have much experience drinking cognac. After several tries it still isn't my favorite but I haven't given up just yet.

The Cocktail Codex lists the classic recipe as:

• 1.5 oz Cognac

• 1.0 oz Cointreau

• 0.75 oz Lemon Juice

• 1 Orange Peel for garnish, expressed over the drink

Using that recipe, I have used Henessey VS and Courvosier VS as the cognac. I find the drink alright.

I decided to make a slight tweak and came up with:

• 2.0 oz Courvosier VS

• 0.75 oz Cointreau

• 0.25 oz Simple Syrup

• 0.75 oz Lemon Juice

• 1 Orange Peel for garnish, expressed over the drink

At least with this particular cognac, I preferred balancing the drink with Cointreau and simple syrup. However, I also upped the cognac by a half ounce. I'm looking forward to trying different variations and different cognacs until I find a recipe that I enjoy.

Sidecar