The Sidecar – Embury’s Recipe

We whipped up a batch of Sidecars per Embury’s original recipe from Difford’s Guide to Cocktails #7.  Which in our case was composed of:

2 oz Courvoisier VSOP Cognac

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Cointreau

Have to say that we agree this cocktail is dry like the Mojave Desert.  Although, the good quality Cognac saved it.  It was a tasty cocktail, but not what we were really looking for in a Sidecar, much too dry.  So I went searching to see what other’s had to say about the recipe.  Much to my surprise what I found is that the recipe listed in Difford’s Guide is not in fact the authentic Embury recipe at all.  Although close, the Embury recipe is even drier!

2 oz Cognac

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Cointreau

Dropping what little Cointreau there was in the Difford’s recipe to 1/4 oz would result in basically lightly flavored Cognac.  At this point, I have to come clean and say that I didn’t even hazard the “True” Embury Sidecar.  Thankfully there are other recipes, better recipes in fact.  So on that note I go to test another recipe so you, dear reader, need not encounter the desert dry Embury Sidecar.