The sidecar is any

cocktail A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely acr ...

traditionally made with

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...

, orange liqueur (

Cointreau Cointreau (, , ) is a brand of orange-flavoured triple sec liqueur produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is consumed as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called Curaça ...

Grand Marnier Grand Marnier () is a French brand of liqueurs. The brand's best-known product is Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge, an orange-flavored liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of Cognac brandy, distilled esse ...

, dry

curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coa ...

, or a

triple sec Triple sec is an orange-flavoured liqueur that originated in France. It usually contains 20–40% alcohol by volume. Triple sec is rarely consumed neat, but is used in preparing many mixed drinks such as margaritas, cosmopolitans, sidecars, L ...

), plus lemon juice. In its ingredients, the drink is perhaps most closely related to the older brandy crusta, which differs both in presentation and in proportions of its components.

Description

Like the

daiquiri The daiquiri (; es, daiquirí ) is a cocktail whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice (typically lime juice), and sugar or other sweetener. The daiquiri is one of the six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic '' The Fine Ar ...

, the sidecar evolved from the original sour formula, but sidecars are often drier than sours, combining liqueurs like

with citrus. Sidecars are considered more of a challenge for bartenders because the proportion of ingredients is more difficult to balance for liqueurs of variable sweetness.

Origin

The exact origin of the sidecar is unclear, but it is thought to have been invented around the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in either London or Paris. The drink was directly named for the motorcycle attachment, which was very commonly used back then. The Ritz Hotel in Paris claims origin of the drink. The first recipes for the sidecar appear in 1922, in Harry MacElhone's ''Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails'' and Robert Vermeire's ''Cocktails and How to Mix Them''. It is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's '' The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks'' (1948). In early editions of MacElhone's book, he cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the popular bartender at

Buck's Club Buck's Club is a gentlemen's club in London, located at 18 Clifford Street, established in June 1919. P. G. Wodehouse mentions it in some stories and modelled his Drones Club mostly after Buck's. It is probably best known for the Buck's Fizz ...

, London", but in later editions he cites himself. While Vermiere states that the drink was "very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by MacGarry, the celebrated bartender of Buck's Club." Embury credits the invention of the drink to an American army captain in Paris during World War I and named after the motorcycle sidecar that the captain used. Journalist O.O. McIntyre reports in his 1937 summary of a visit to New York City that bartenders there attributed the drink to American expatriates Erskine Gywnne and

Basil Woon Basil Dillon Woon (28 September 1893, London – 4 June 1974 Reno) was a British playwright, American author, and American journalist. He covered the Mexican Revolution for United Press, and also worked for the ''New York World'', '' The Houston ...

. Both MacElhone and Vermiere state the recipe as equal parts cognac,

, and lemon juice, now known as "the French school". Later, an "English school" of sidecars emerged, as found in the ''Savoy Cocktail Book'' (1930), which call for two parts cognac and one part each of Cointreau and lemon juice. According to Embury, the original sidecar had several ingredients, which were "refined away". Embury also states the drink is simply a daiquiri with brandy as its base rather than rum, and with Cointreau as the sweetening agent rather than sugar syrup. He recommends the same proportions (8:2:1) for both, making a much-less-sweet sidecar. However, Simon Difford, in his book ''Encyclopedia of Cocktails'', notes Harry Craddock's ratio of 2:1:1 in ''The Savoy Cocktail Book'', and then suggests a middle ground between Craddock's recipe and the "French school" equal parts recipe of 3:2:2, calling Embury's daiquiri formula "overly dry" for a sidecar. The earliest mention of sugaring the rim on a sidecar glass is 1934, in three books: Burke's ''Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes'', Gordon's ''Cocktail & Food Recipes'', and ''Drinks As They Are Mixed'' (a revised reprint of Paul E. Lowe's 1904 book).

References

External links

December 2005 "Cocktail of the Month"
at

Epicurious ''Epicurious'' is an American digital brand that focuses on food and cooking-related topics. Created by Condé Nast in 1995, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, where it is part of the publisher's Food ...

Drinkboy recipe
{{IBACocktails Cocktails with brandy Cocktails with triple sec or curaçao Sour cocktails

Description

Origin

See also

References

External links