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 | Bénédictine D.O.M. liqueur |
1/2 fl oz | Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) |
1/4 fl oz | Lime juice (freshly squeezed) |
1/4 fl oz | Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water, 65.0°Brix) |
2 dash | Angostura Aromatic Bitters |
1 dash | Orange Bitters by Angostura |
1/2 fl oz | Pasteurised egg white (or aquafaba) (optional) |
Read about cocktail measures and measuring.

Hazardous ingredients
Pasteurised egg white (or aquafaba) is potentially hazardous to those with allergy or intolerance.
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.
Nutrition:
One serving of Frisco Sour contains 209 calories.
Alcohol content:
- 1.5 standard drinks
- 19.17% alc./vol. (38.34° proof)
- 21.3 grams of pure alcohol
Join the Discussion
... comment(s) for Frisco Sour
You must log in to your account to make a comment.