Brandy Daisy
A sour, herbal and bubbly brandy cocktail ∙ Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 21.3% ABV ∙
The Brandy Daisy is a stirred cognac sour with an herbal liqueur, lemon juice and sugar syrup, served over crushed ice with a splash of soda.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Stir the first 4 ingredients with ice: Cognac 45 mlHerbal liqueur (e.g., Yellow Chartreuse) 20 mlLemon juice 15 mlSugar syrup 10 ml
- Strain into the glass filled with crushed ice
- Top with a splash of Soda water and briefly stir
- Garnish with a seasonal berry and a mint sprig
Tips
- Squeeze the lemon fresh and keep it to 15 ml; any more and the sourness buries the herbal liqueur.
History
The Brandy Daisy belongs to the Daisy family of cocktails, a sour-style category that rose to popularity in the United States in the second half of the 19th century.
The first published recipe for a Daisy came from bartender Jerry Thomas, appearing in the 1876 second edition of his Bar-Tender's Guide. A Brandy Daisy recipe also turned up in Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual around 1888. Thomas's early version called for brandy, lemon juice, an orange cordial, and gum syrup, shaken with shaved ice and topped with seltzer from a syphon.
Bartenders soon built Daisies with other base spirits, including whiskey and gin, and varied the sweetening liqueur among curaçao, maraschino, and yellow Chartreuse. The Brandy Daisy is regarded as a direct forerunner of the Sidecar, which emerged around the end of World War I by dropping the soda water. It is also counted among the ancestors of the Margarita, whose name is the Spanish word for "daisy" and which descended from the related Tequila Daisy of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
