Angostura Sour
Dry shake ∙ 5 min ∙ 16% ABV ∙
The Angostura Sour is a whole-bottle sour built on Angostura aromatic bitters instead of a base spirit, shaken with lime, sugar, and egg white. Bittersweet and spiced up front, with baking-spice warmth from the bitters settling into a silky, citrus-tart body under a cloud-soft egg-white foam.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Angostura aromatic bitters 45 mlLime juice 30 mlSugar syrup 15 mlEgg white 15 ml
- Strain back into the shaker
- Dry shake (without ice)
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with an aromatic bitters drop
Tips
- Shake the bitters, lime juice, syrup and egg white with ice first, then strain the liquid back into the empty shaker.
- Dry shake that chilled mix hard for 12-15 seconds without ice to build a stable foam before the fine strain.
- Fine-strain into the chilled coupe to catch ice shards and pulp, giving a smooth, tight head for the bitters-drop garnish to sit on.
- Dot the aromatic bitters garnish onto the foam right after pouring, then drag a toothpick through the drops to make a design before the foam settles.
History
The Angostura Sour traces back to a recipe called the Angostura Fizz, also known as the Trinidad Fizz, that spirits writer Charles H. Baker Jr. recorded in his 1939 book The Gentleman's Companion, Volume II, describing it as a stomach remedy from the humid shores of Trinidad. Baker's recipe was unusual for using Angostura bitters as the drink's base rather than as a seasoning. In 2009, New Orleans bartenders Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak, both working at the bar Cure, revived and reworked Baker's formula as the Angostura Sour for their self-published cocktail pamphlet Rogue Cocktails, keeping the bitters-as-base concept while giving it a modern sour treatment. The related Trinidad Sour, which adds whiskey to the mix, later emerged as a better-known variation on the same bitters-forward idea.
