Amaretto Sour Cocktail Recipe - Difford's Guide

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  Amaretto Sour

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  • Ingredients
  • How to make
  • Allergens
  • Strength & taste guide
  • Gallery
  • Review
  • Variant
  • History
  • Nutrition
  • Alcohol content
  • Comments

Unrated Wish list Not tried Notes Preferred brands Add your version

Glass:

Photographed in an UB Grantown Tumbler 12oz

Ingredients: [edit]

60 ml	Amaretto Adriatico liqueur
30 ml	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters
15 ml	Egg white (pasteurised) or Vegg White vegan egg white alternative

ml × 1 1 serving Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

1. Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.
2. Prepare garnish of spray aromatic bitters over foaming cocktail from atomiser and then garnish with lemon & cherry sail (lemon slice & Luxardo Maraschino Cherry on stick).

How to make:

3. SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
4. STRAIN back into shaker.
5. DRY SHAKE (without ice).
6. FINE STRAIN into ice-filled glass.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

• Egg white (pasteurised) - Eggs

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol Medium Boozy Sweet Medium Dry/sour More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Sweet 'n' sour - frothy with an almond buzz. An extra couple of dashes of bitters help balance the drink and add an extra burst of flavour. When made with freshly squeezed lemon juice this can be a great cocktail.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Morgenthaler's Amaretto Sour with bourbon.

History:

Notably absent from 1970s encyclopaedia-style books listing pretty much all known cocktails of the day, including the comprehensive Stanley M. Jones' 1977 Jones' Complete Barguide, the Amaretto Sour is a cocktail of the 1980s, when it starts to appear in books such as Mark Torre's 1987 The Bartender's Cherry. (It may well also be in the 1984 first edition but sadly I don't own a copy.)

Amaretto Sour 1 shot Amaretto Di Saronno® /Amaretto ½ splash Orange Juice Fill with Sour Mix Shake Orange Flag Garnish Sour/Highball Glass V/O: without Orange Juice

Mark Torre, 1987

The Amaretto Sour is thought to have been created in 1974 at the behest of the US importer of the brand then named "Amaretto di Saronno." Originally two parts amaretto liqueur to one part lemon juice, but (as the recipe in Jones' Complete Barguide illustrates) by the time it became popular in the 1980s the trend to use commercial sour-mix in place of fresh lemon juice had also taken its toll on the Amaretto Sour. Hence, during the 1990-2000s cocktail renaissance, the Amaretto Sour was considered a "Disco Drink", only to be rescued by Jeffrey Morgenthaler in 2012 with the addition of bourbon: Morgenthaler's Amaretto Sour Sours cocktails history

Nutrition:

One serving of Amaretto Sour contains 233 calories

Alcohol content:

• 0.9 standard drinks
• 11.83% alc./vol. (23.65° proof)
• 12.5 grams of pure alcohol

• More Citrusy cocktails
• More Sours (citrus) cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Join the discussion

Showing 10 of 12 comments for Amaretto Sour. See discussion in the Forum

Please log in to make a comment Cassandra Adams 18th July 2025 at 19:32 We used Hay Wines Awesome Amaretto, and it was delicious (made with fresh almonds). Not too sweet and perfectly balanced. Also used Vegg White after seeing Simon's enthusiasm for it, and we're converted. Personally I think it improves the aroma no end. 1 reply ... Jose Cruz 6th May 2024 at 04:00 take 2 : 50ML Disaro. to 20 ml Lemon, not as sweet, still wonderful. 1 reply ... Jose Cruz 6th May 2024 at 03:47 I love sours ... not as they come but as i tune them for more balance .. for this one 50ML Disarorono / 20 ML lemon / 10 ML orgeat syrup.... yummy almond goodness 1 reply ... Jose Cruz 6th May 2024 at 03:53 WARNING: BASICALLY A DESSERT drink ;) 3 reply ... Dan Da Costa 26th November 2022 at 20:49 Had a version of this made for us by Miguel at Madrid's 1862 Dry Bar. He'd added Drambuie and Passion Fruit for an amazing sipper!! 3 reply ... Jesse M 19th July 2022 at 06:16 Made it vegan and somewhat merged this and the Morgenthaler recipe - 45ml amaretto, 5ml bourbon, 25ml lemon, 2.5ml rich brown syrup, 10ml aquafaba. Very nice and foamy, though the lemon was a bit forward and hours later I'm still feeling the acid in my trachea (is this just me? the recipe here calls for a full 30ml...). Hope to try again son with 40ml amaretto/10ml bourbon/15ml lemon/5ml syrup. 0 reply ... Nick Bull 22nd February 2022 at 20:14 Made this for my wife this evening. She loved it, and I was a bit jealous of her when I tried a sip. The sweetness of the Disaronno against the sharp lemon makes for a great drink. Don't be tempted to leave out the egg white, it really makes for a great texture and mouthfeel. 2 reply ... Dommie coolvax 25th June 2021 at 17:53 What a fantastic site this is, just tried this as the first sour I’ve ever made it was delicious ? as a newbie to the cocktail world I couldn’t bring myself to add the egg am I missing out ? 5 reply ... Simon Difford 25th June 2021 at 18:26 Thanks for your kind words. Yes! Egg white smooths and adds mouthfeel. Look for a pasteurised egg white such as the one we sell, or Two Chicks in supermarket fridges, usually near cream. 1 reply ... Jeff Newcastle 24th April 2021 at 16:17 The Richard Goodwin book makes this with 50% bourbon and 50% amaretto, Lemon juice, angostura, egg white and an optional 5ml of simple syrup. It’s delicious. Drop the angostura on the foam as a part of the garnish. 1 reply ... Simon Difford 25th April 2021 at 09:54 Richard Goodwin recipe is actually from Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s recipe (please follow link above). 1 reply ... 乐意的homebar 赵 18th January 2021 at 05:31 It is good taste cocktail.The disarono is too sweet to me, but i like the almond flavor. The almond sour deal the problem of high sweetness. 3 reply ... Nick Lee 15th December 2020 at 16:12 To Christopher Bellingham; quite simply, yes Disaronno is an amaretto. Amaretto does not pertain to almond or apricot kernel, it just means a little bitter. 1 reply ... See discussion in the Forum

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