Name: Frisco Sour
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Bourbon whiskey; 15 ml Bénédictine D.O.M.; 15 ml Lemon juice; 7.5 ml Lime juice; 7.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 dash Aromatic bitters; 1 dash Orange bitters; 15 ml Egg white (pasteurised)

Frisco Sour
Jump to

Serve in a Double old-fashioned

Ingredients:
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Bourbon whiskey
¹⁄₂ oz	Bénédictine D.O.M. liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
2 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters
1 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura
¹⁄₂ oz	Egg white (pasteurised) or Aquafaba (chickpea water) or 3 dashes Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foamer optional

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Double old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist and skewered lemon slice wheel and Luxardo Maraschino Cherry sail.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN back into shaker.
DRY SHAKE (without ice).
FINE STRAIN into ice-filled glass.
Express lemon zest twist over the cocktail and discard.
Garnish with skewered lemon slice wheel and maraschino cherry (sail).

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Egg white (pasteurised) - Eggs

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A bourbon-laced sour with monastic herbal notes.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Without egg white &/or served straight-up.

History:

The Frisco Sour started life as a mere Frisco, sans Sour (egg white) in Lucius-Beebe's 1946 The Stock Club Bar Book.
"Frisco Cocktail:
2 oz bourbon
¾ oz Benedictine
twist of lemon peel
Stir and serve in 3oz. cocktail glass."

The original Frisco is a tad sweet and is much improved with a dash or two of orange bitters to bolster the lemon oils from the twist. This obviously led a bartender somewhere to add citrus juice. In Stanley M. Jones 1977 Jones' Complete BarGuide he lists the above Frisco but with 2oz bourbon and ½oz Benedictine followed by a sour version:
"Frisco Sour
Sour glass Shake
½ oz lemon juice
¼ oz lime juice
¾ oz Benedictine
1-¼ oz whiskey
¼ tsp sugar
Lemon wedge, lime wheel"

Once this cocktail morphed into a sour then the addition of egg white was a natural progression, which I believe came in the 1990s when this was a popular cocktail in the London bar scene. That's when I first encountered the Frisco Sour which was by then served on-the-rocks. However, it also works well, as per Jones' recipe, strained into a stemmed sour glass or coupe.

Nutrition:

One serving of Frisco Sour contains 208 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
19.13% alc./vol. (19.13° proof)
21.2 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

Join the discussion

Showing 7 comments for Frisco Sour.
See discussion in the Forum

Please log in to make a comment

狐狸屑

19th January at 11:01

比传统的威士忌酸味道更丰富，我喜欢，

Henry Tran

17th December 2024 at 17:26

I agree with Alex that benedictine was overpowered by the citrus. Taste like a normal whiskey sour.

Daniel Jones

9th June 2024 at 09:54

I've made it with & without the egg white & equally delicious. I used Elijah Craig bourbon based on a bartenders opinion that it pairs well with citrus. And after tasting it, goes well with Benedictine & lemon n lime, 4.5 stars.

Alex J

15th January 2023 at 00:15

Quite a nice sour and an easy variant on my usual regular whisky sour, but the benedictine was a bit overpowered by the citrus when I made this. Will try again but bumping the benedictine up to ~20mls.

(I should say I probably also like my sours a tiny bit sweeter than the Diffords recipes)

Keith Jones

2nd August 2022 at 02:53

I replaced the sugar syrup with BG Reynolds Orgeat syrup. Makes a very subtle change. Nice. Worth doing a side by side comparison I think…. At least a gives me an excuse to have another of one this bloody lovely cocktail. Pretty much stripped my lemon tree shaking this baby up!

Vincent Dufour

26th September 2020 at 19:19

I have tried it , well the color was a bit darker. And I didn't manage to get a nice foam. Is it because i use egg white syrup ?

Simon Difford

27th September 2020 at 07:52

Fresh egg white, or pasteurised egg white that requires refrigeration to store, tends to produce more foam than pasteurised egg white that can be stored at ambient temp.

Stig Hansen

6th June 2020 at 17:36

according to the video recipe ur written recipe is missing a few ingredients, Orange juice and orange bitters

Simon Difford

7th June 2020 at 11:58

The video wasn't wasn't of me or my recipe. I will have removed from page to save confusion. Your comment led me to remake the Frisco Sour and amend recipe and add notes re history. Thanks for bringing this cocktail to my attention.

See discussion in the Forum