Brandy Daisy
Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 22.6% ABV ∙
The Brandy Daisy is a stirred cognac cocktail built with an herbal liqueur, lemon juice, and sugar syrup, topped with a splash of soda water. Bright lemon and cognac warmth lead, with a bittersweet herbal edge underneath and a light fizzy lift at the finish — a good pre-dinner sipper.
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 and 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
- Chill the cognac, Chartreuse, lemon juice, and syrup with ice first, then strain into the glass before adding soda so carbonation isn't lost through over-stirring.
- Add the soda water last and give only one gentle stir to preserve fizz, since this daisy is finished with a splash rather than shaken.
- Use freshly squeezed lemon juice measured precisely at 15 ml; too much sours the balance against the 20 ml herbal liqueur.
- Top with the seasonal berries and mint sprig just before serving so the garnish stays fresh and doesn't wilt into the drink.
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 earliest known written reference to a "Daisy" appears in an 1866 novel, though without any recipe or description. The first published recipe for a Daisy came from bartender Jerry Thomas, appearing in the 1876 edition of his guide, The Bartender's Guide, or How to Mix Drinks: The Bon-Vivant's Companion; some sources instead place its debut in the 1887 posthumous edition of that same guide, alongside a Brandy Daisy recipe that 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, and 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.
