For no particular reason, the second entry in my list of favorite cocktails is the Sidecar. If you read my first post, it may occur to you that a Sidecar is not technically a cocktail; it's a sour. A sour is merely a spirit plus lemon or lime juice plus a sweetener. That sweetener can be sugar, a syrup, or a liqueur. In lesser bars or in the premade-margarita-mix aisle of your grocery store, you can buy "Sour mix." Skip that, and take the time to make a crisper, cleaner sour mix as it was originally intended: equal parts lemon or lime juice and simple syrup.
This is a very popular family of mixed drinks with hundreds of variations. Consider:
whiskey + lemon juice + syrup = whiskey sour
gin + lemon juice + maraschino liqueur = Aviation
light rum + lime juice + syrup = Daiquiri
cachaça + lime juice + sugar = caipirinha
tequila + lime juice + orange liqueur (eg. triple sec) = margarita
applejack + lemon juice + grenadine = Jack Rose
etc.
Brandy + lemon juice + Cointreau (another orange liqueur) gives us the Sidecar. There are a few commonly used recipes which differ only in proportions. David Embury's aperitif recipe calls for a 8:2:1 ratio of the three respective ingredients. Others like 4:2:1. I prefer the less-dry, equal-parts recipe for general purposes:
1 oz brandy (Martel VSOP Cognac)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz Cointreau
Shake with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. You may garnish with a lemon peel. Don't sugar the rim; it doesn't need it.
I suppose it's worth noting that Cognac is a brandy produced in France's Cognac region. The better the ingredients used here, the better the cocktail; but substituting a VS or VSOP American brandy and triple sec for the Cognac and Cointreau makes a more-than-decent drink.
It's also worth noting that probably half of the times I serve this drink to someone who's never had it, they proclaim it their new favorite cocktail. Deservedly high praise!
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