Cocktail recipe
Sidecar
A brisk Cognac sour dressed in orange perfume and a razor-clean lemon finish.
Ingredients
- 60 ml (2 oz) Cognac
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) dry orange liqueur
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) fresh lemon juice
- Optional half-rim: 5 g (1 tsp) superfine sugar
- Garnish: 1 orange twist
Preparation
If using sugar, moisten only half the coupe rim and dip into 5 g superfine sugar. Shake the Cognac, orange liqueur and lemon with ice until frosty; fine-strain into the chilled coupe. Express an orange twist over the surface.
Glassware
Chilled coupe (or classic cocktail glass)
History
Robert Vermeire's *Cocktails: How to Mix Them* (1922) prints an equal-parts Cognac, Cointreau and lemon Sidecar and explicitly says Pat MacGarry of London's Buck's Club introduced it in London, while noting its popularity in France. Harry MacElhone's early *ABC of Mixing Cocktails* also credits MacGarry; later editions complicate the attribution. Neither account conclusively proves where it was invented. The officer-in-a-motorcycle-sidecar story is later folklore; the 1930 *Savoy Cocktail Book* prints a stronger 2:1:1 formula. **Attribution confidence:** See sourced account and qualifications above.
Mixology View
We give MacGarry the strongest early documented association, not a definitive inventor's crown. Our Cognac-led house ratio is a deliberate departure from the 1922 equal-parts formula; the optional half-sugar rim is a modern serving choice.