The Sidecar is a WWI-era drink that first appeared in recipe books around 1919–1923. The Ritz Hotel in Paris claims to have invented it (as usual, London disagrees), and it seems to be a riff on, or cousin of, the famous New Orleans cocktail, the Brandy Crusta. The name always gets associated with a story about a patron who’d arrive in a motorcycle sidecar to drink these things, but at least some experts think it comes from being one of the first drinks to roll with a half-sugared rim instead of the whole-sugared rim.

I really love brandy-based cocktails. This particular brandy-based cocktail works great during the transitional periods of the year. We passed and celebrated the equinox with a Garrick Club Punch, but the weather is not quite what you’d think of as “spring.” Brandy cocktails work the same magic in the fall when you’re unsure of whether it’s fall or still summer. Fall also invites a host of apple brandy cocktails.

The recipe for a Sidecar is much-debated. Early versions would often call for a 1:1:1 version of the drink. The Savoy cocktail book goes in for 2:1:1, and there’s everything in between. In the histories (there are many) of this drink, there seems to be a notion that the specs closer to equal parts are French in origin, and those closer to 2:1:1 are English. You can easily punch up the cocktail to a full 2 oz of Cognac. Regardless of how booze forward the drink is, however, you’ll still adjust its balance through the liqueur and fresh lemon juice. There are specs that call for a little less orange liqueur and more rich simple syrup. This fixes the level of orange flavor but adjusts sweetness without adding more orange. 

In other words, the Sidecar is a lot like an Old Fashioned, Martini, or Daiquiri. Experiment with the ingredients and dial in the spec that you appreciate. The reader should view the below as a template rather than as handed down from Osiris. I often have different specs depending on whether I’m enjoying this at home or hosting a dinner party. It makes a great batched cocktail.

Sidecars are approachable if you’re just getting into home cocktail culture. It’s one of the first drinks I made when starting. The ingredients are simple and can be repurposed for myriad other cocktails. Aside from base spirits, vermouth and orange curaçao are must-have bottles for a home bar. This drink is also a good reminder of why we should strive not to forget brandy when mixing.

Let’s tip one. 

I most recently went over how to get sugar on the rim of your glass when we made the Scottish Sandie. But let’s try again. With half the lemon or orange (either works here), rub the exposed citrus flesh on a thin strip of the rim of your glass in the area where you’d like sugar. As you see above, this strip can be rather “fat” depending on your technique and preferences. Add your sugar to a small serving plate or tea saucer. Roll that area of your glass in sugar until coated with citrus juice and sugar. Walla! You have a sugared rim. Place your glass in the freezer to chill.

Let the glass chill thoroughly. This is a shaken drink (remember, we have to emulsify the citrus juice). Add the ingredients, sans garnish, to a shaker tin. Load the other half with ice and bring them together for the standard shake. Fine-strain this into your glass and express some orange or lemon oil over the drink. You could use the peel as a garnish, or discard it, and leave the garnish duties to the sugared rim. Enjoy!

Any Cognac you like to drink will work well in this drink. I’d wouldn’t waste my Louis XIII or an XO on a cocktail except on a special occasion, but a good VS or VSOP will be great. I’ve even made a Sidecar with Paul Masson Grande Amber to good effect, as I have done here. 

The key choice is the orange liqueur. I think an Orange Curaçao is superior in the drink and adds depth of flavor. It’s made with a brandy or Cognac base and is darker and richer than, say, a Triple Sec, which gives the drink a brighter, fresher orange flavor. Triple sec (e.g., Cointreau) also enhances the perception of dryness in the drink. Given the fresh lemon juice, I don’t think the drink needs it, but you certainly could go that route. Among Curaçaos, there are a lot of choices. You could go drier and have more bitter orange peel with something like the ballyhooed Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, or something deeper orange and much richer with Grand Marnier. An interesting choice, and one I like quite a bit, is to use an Agricole-based orange liqueur like Clement Creole Shrub. The Agricole is also a run base, making it a particularly good companion of the coconut sugar. It actually gives this drink a slight grassy note that goes well with the lemon. Today, I’ve used Grand Marnier in the photos here.

In addition, if you don’t like this balance, simply adjusting the ratio of orange liqueur to fresh lemon juice will deliver something sweeter or tart. In essence, the liqueur serves as a stand-in for simple syrup in the drink. Think of the ratio exactly as you would adjusting a typical sour-style cocktail. The caveat is that the orange liqueur will have less sweetness than a simple syrup—that’s why we need less fresh lemon juice to instigate balance.

About the sugared rim, any sugar you like will do, except maybe confectioners’ sugar. I really like coconut sugar on my rims, and it works great here with the other flavors. Turbinado, Demerara, beet sugar, and Florida Crystals all work fine. You could discard the orange twist after expressing over the drink, but why?

As I mentioned above, in terms of technique, this drink is great as a batched cocktail. With an oleo-saccharum, it approximates a brandy punch. It’s also very good as a milk-washed or clarified cocktail, using regular whole milk, coconut milk, or other alternative “milks.” One thing to note (that I have neglected to mention previously), when I build a clarified cocktail, I double the recipe for ingredients. I use enough milk to reach 37% of the ingredient volume. It’s more than the 25% you’d normally see, but it works super well. I double the ingredients, because you lose a bit to the milk or “milk” and also to the filter you use. I use a double paper coffee filter in a dedicated cocktail Chemex. If you try this with the Chemex you use for your morning pick-me-up, you will definitely start detecting coffee notes in your cocktails. See below for a clarified Sidecar. 

Get in touch with your favorite Sidecar spec.

This blog is, as ever, an opinionated take on drinks.