Amaretto Sour cocktail recipe

If we’re going by website clicks alone, people sure do love an Amaretto Sour. This has to be one of the most popular cocktails in our entire collection of recipes. And we can see why. A well-made Amaretto Sour is a thing of beauty. Think of it as the cocktail equivalent of a well-tailored vintage suit –classic, cool and always in style. 

The Amaretto Sour was a collaborative effort between Italy and America, thought to have been created in the 1970s when Italian liqueurs like amaretto were becoming more widespread in the US. Odds are that a bartender experimented with using amaretto in a Whiskey Sour, and the Amaretto Sour was the tasty result.

Amaretto is made from apricot, almonds and peach stones, resulting in a sweet, nutty flavour. Because of this, it’s often added to desserts and coffee as well as cocktails. The Amaretto Sour is the perfect balance of sweet ’n’ sour, with the nutty sweetness combating the sour lemon juice and bitters. The egg white provides a lovely frothy head to the cocktail, making it a joy to sip at both the start and end of the evening.

For anyone keen to steer away from the classic Amaretto Sour with a slight variation, try using 25mL of amaretto instead of the 50mL in this recipe, and add 25mL of bourbon to the mix. This will add a lick of spice and heat to the combination. 

To make your Amaretto Sour vegan-friendly, you can substitute the egg white with aquafaba (you may know it as the gelatinous liquid from your can of chickpeas). Just take out the eggwhite and add two tablespoons of aquafaba. That said, if you are keeping things traditional, we highly recommend making sure that your eggs are as fresh as possible for the best foam texture. There are now also non-alcoholic versions of amaretto available, so if you'd prefer a mocktail, you can mix one up using this recipe but substituting out the alcoholic amaretto.

If you’re loving your Amaretto Sour, it’s well worth getting to know the rest of the Sour family. How about a Whiskey Sour, Rum Sour, or a Pisco Sour? Or if you’re really into the amaretto, take a look at our Amaretto Fizz, the Mango and Amaretto Daiquiri or the Amaretto Sundae Stir.