Angels Share No. 1

Name: Angels Share No. 1
Prep time: 4 min
Total time: 4 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Orange marmalade — 1 bsp; Brandy — 60 ml (2 oz); Vanilla liqueur — 10 ml (1/3 oz); Lemon juice — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Sugar syrup — 10 ml (1/3 oz)

Stir; Shake ∙ 4 min ∙ 19.7% ABV ∙

The Angels Share No. 1 is a brandy sour built with orange marmalade, vanilla liqueur, lemon juice, and syrup, shaken and strained into a coupe. Marmalade and vanilla round out the brandy's warmth, while lemon keeps it bright, finishing dry and citrus-peel fragrant — an easy after-dinner sipper.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Orange twist

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
In the base of the shaker, stir: a heaping spoon of Orange marmalade 1 bsp and Brandy 60 ml until the marmalade dissolves
Add the remaining ingredients: Vanilla liqueur 10 mlLemon juice 20 mlSugar syrup 10 ml
Shake with ice
Fine strain into the chilled glass
Garnish with an orange twist

Tips

Muddle the orange marmalade with the lemon juice and sugar syrup first to fully dissolve it before adding brandy and vanilla liqueur, preventing sticky undissolved chunks in the shaker.
Shake hard for a full 12-15 seconds with plenty of ice to break down the marmalade properly and achieve a light, aerated texture through the fine-mesh strain.
Double-strain through a fine mesh strainer into the chilled coupe to catch any lingering marmalade rind or pulp, ensuring a smooth, clear-textured drink.
Express the oils from the orange twist over the surface of the drink before resting it on the rim, reinforcing the citrus notes from the marmalade.

History

Angels Share No. 1 is a Cognac sour credited to bartender Milo Rodriguez in London in 2005. It belongs to a small family of "Angel's Share" cocktails devised around the same period, distinguished from a separate namesake, Angels Share No. 2, created the same year by Jacques Bezuidenhout at Harry Denton's Starlight Room in San Francisco, which instead builds on Cognac with Chartreuse, walnut liqueur, and tawny port. Both drinks take their name from the traditional distilling term for the portion of spirit lost to evaporation during barrel aging. Angels Share No. 1 marries Cognac with orange marmalade and a vanilla-flavored liqueur, a combination that set it apart from Bezuidenhout's herbal, nuttier version bearing the same name.