Amaro Sour

By Rebekah Peppler

Total Time: 5 minutes
Rating: 4(512)
Notes: Read community notes

This drink, run through with amaro, riffs on the endlessly adaptable sour template (spirit-citrus-sweetener). A maraschino cherry and half a grapefruit wheel are muddled with sugar early on, to sweeten and flavor the drink, while another cherry and half-wheel are added just before serving. That allows the fruit to slowly become infused with gin and amaro, creating garnish and boozy snack. Reach for a sweeter-leaning amaro, or throw caution to the bitter wind and grab something more intense. If you want to balance the amaro’s bitter edges with a touch more sweetness, add a dash or three of the maraschino cherry syrup to your shaker or serve with extra cherries for middrink pops of sweetness.

Featured in: Sours That Walk the Line

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Ingredients

Yield:1 drink

2maraschino cherries
1grapefruit wheel, halved
1½teaspoons granulated sugar
2ounces gin
1ounce amaro, such as Amaro Nonino, Montenegro or Averna
¾ounce fresh lemon juice
Ice

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
In a cocktail shaker, add 1 cherry, 1 half-wheel of grapefruit and the sugar. Muddle until the sugar dissolves. Add the gin, amaro, lemon juice and ice. Cover and shake vigorously until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled lowball glass, and garnish with the remaining cherry and grapefruit half.

Ratings

4 out of 5

512 user ratings

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Cooking Notes

JP3 years ago

You aren't muddling the sugar, you are muddling the fruit. The process releases the flavors of the fresh ingredients (in this case grapefruit and cherry) so that they bind with the alcohol. I'm uncertain what you are referring to with regards to the 1/2 grapefruit wheel being from the "middle of the fruit." Either way, this process/recipe is pretty standard, not really odd at all.

Pete3 years ago

No sour grapes(fruit) here! I had lemons and oranges, followed the proportions exactly, and holy saint Juniper, this drink is so good!

delicious3 years ago

Didn’t have grapefruit but blood orange was a great substitute!

Jeanie Diva3 years ago

You want a thick slice of grapefruit from the middle of the fruit, sliced in half? Seems like having that in the way would make muddling the sugar pretty hard, especially in the bottom of a tall cocktail shaker. Why not muddle the sugar in the liquids first, then put in the ice and the grapefruit and the cherry before shaking? Mind you, I haven't tried this, it just seemed odd.

Roberto10 months ago

Tried this. Delicious. However had to use orange as grapefruit interferes dramatically with the metabolism of half the medications I take. This is a well known problem with grapefruit.

Charles-Antoine4 months ago

I made this with Giffard crème de pamplemousse instead of a fresh piece of grapefruit, and it worked beautifully

stinky5 months ago

A solid recipe. Made with Amaro Nonino and ruby red grapefruits and it’s the perfect balance of sweet/tart/bitter.

Mark P.8 months ago

Particularly tasty w Cynar, the Italian artichoke (!) amaro

Mark P.9 months ago

Particularly good w Cynar. Also, brown or jaggery sugar adds more character than the white stuff-

Emily9 months ago

This is amazing with bourbon (1 ingredient short of a paper plane!), and I can definitely second blood orange works amazingly well if you don’t have grapefruit on hand.

Mark P.9 months ago

A spritz of club soda livens it up a bit-

Kris9 months ago

Great drink! I didn't have the grapefruit- just used a bit of lemon. Used Luxardo cherries though, and so good....

Kathryn10 months ago

Ok but not great. Too easy to drink quickly. Made with muddled orange (only, no cherry), no sugar, bar spoon of cherry syrup, served w 1 cherry.

Roberto10 months ago

Tried this. Delicious. However had to use orange as grapefruit interferes dramatically with the metabolism of half the medications I take. This is a well known problem with grapefruit.

Amy2 years ago

Luxardo cherries are expensive! I don't want to use one for muddling so I use 2 teaspoons of the syrup from the jar instead of the cherry and the sugar. Muddle with the grapefruit and mix the rest of the drink as the recipe says (Averna Amaro). Turns out delicious!

K2 years ago

Made with Amaro Meletti. Delicious with the right amount of bitterness!

Tara2 years ago

omitted the sugar and loved it!

Renee2 years ago

We adore this drink, and perfected it for 2 drinks. Use half a grapefruit, cut off the wheel, and cut in half: one half per drink as the recipe calls for. Use the rest of the half grapefruit for muddling, but cut it into quarters so it muddles easily. Otherwise follow the recipe doubling for two. Then you have the other half of a grapefruit to make another round! This drink is exceptional!

Sophie2 years ago

Nice flavor! Made with Amaro Abano and it is nicely spiced. Sweetness was right level for me. I wonder if anyone has tried adding egg white?

Jennifer2 years ago

This drink is fantastic. I used brandied cherries instead of maraschino as I find them far more tasty and I added a few extra to each glass along with a wee splash of the "cherry brandy" they soaked in. I also cut the half grapefruit wheel used for muddling into quarters so they would fit better in the shaker. My grapefruit was huge! I have made this several times and love it. Jeanie, if you don't put the grapefruit in to muddle, you don't release all the lovely oils into the drink.

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