Sidecar

To make a sugar rim, first place some white sugar on a plate. Take a lemon half and rub it on the top of the coupe glass. Turn the coupe upside down and stick it on the sugar. Sugar will adhere to the lemon juice and leave you with a perfectly rimmed coupe.

If you can’t be bothered with the sugar rim, do away with it and add a barspoon of simple syrup before shaking.

This is one recipe where we feel the use of fresh lemon juice is key - this cocktail doesn't quite work with lime juice, it's too acidic and it's too loud next to the other ingredients.

This recipe contains no syrups, which means the sweetness is coming mostly from the orange liqueur. As orange liqueur brands and styles are not the same, it is up to you to make sure that the cocktail is balanced. If you feel it needs a bit of sugar, add half or a full barspoon of simple syrup until you feel it’s just right.

The sidecar appears in 1922’s Cocktails How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeire. In it, he says Pat MacGarry of Buck’s Club in London was the creator of the recipe.

In 1922’s ABC of Cocktails, Harry MacElhone of the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris also credits Pat MacGarry as the creator of the cocktail. However, in later editions of his book, he changes his tune claiming that he in fact invented it.

One story claims that the cocktail is named after an American army captain stationed in Paris in World War I, who was driven to the bar in a motorcycle sidecar.

The Sidecar is likely a variant of a Brandy Crusta, which appears in Jerry Thomas Bartenders Guide (1862).