Garnish:
Lemon zest twist (discarded) & lemon slice wheel & maraschino cherry sail
How to make:
SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain back into shaker. DRY SHAKE (without ice) and fine strain into ice-filled glass.
| 1 2/3 fl oz | Bourbon whiskey |
| 1/2 fl oz | Benedictine D.O.M. |
| 1/2 fl oz | Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) |
| 1/4 fl oz | Lime juice (freshly squeezed) |
| 1/4 fl oz | Giffard Sugar Cane Syrup |
| 2 dash | Angostura or other aromatic bitters |
| 1 dash | Orange bitters |
| 1/2 fl oz | Pasteurised egg white (optional) |
Difford's Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above.
Review:
A bourbon-laced sour with monastic herbal notes.
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.
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