Gin Stone Sour

Serve in an

Garnish:

Orange slice wheel

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into ice-filled glass.

Review:

As per the original 1917 recipe, old tom gin (rather than dry gin) is the essential ingredient in this orange-influenced Gin Sour.

Variant:

Amaretto Stone Sour
Apricot Stone Sour
Bourbon Stone Sour
Hawaiian Stone Sour
Mezcal Stone Sour
New York Stone Sour
Rum Stone Sour
Scotch Stone Sour
Tequila Stone Sour
Vodka Stone Sour

History:

The first known recipe for a "Stone Sour" appears in Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks, but that first gin-based Stone Sour is without the orange juice that in later decades became part of this cocktail's DNA. Straub's Stone Sour is also differentiated from later renditions by its being frappé.

Stone Sour
1 jigger Plymouth gin.
Juice of 1 lemon.
Sweeten with plain syrup.
Frappé well; strain into goblet filled with fine cracked ice. Serve.

acques Straub, Drinks, 1914

The earliest Stone Sour recipe with orange juice is in Tom Bullock's 1917 book The Ideal Bartender, and this is credited with being this cocktail's turning point.

Stone Sour
Use a tall, thin glass; fill with fine Ice.
½ pony Lemon Juice.
1/2 pony Orange Juice.
2 dashes Rock Candy Syrup.
1 jigger Old Tom Gin.
Leave in Ice; stir well and serve.

Tom Bullock, The Ideal Bartender, 1917

Thanks to Prohibition, the Stone Sour faded into obscurity until its resurrection in the 1980s, making a notable appearance in Vincent Sardi's 1988 Sardi's Bar Guide, which says, "A stone sour is, of course, a sour with the addition of orange juice." Sardi's Bar Guide has the recipe for seven different "Stone Sours", each distinguished by a different base spirit or liqueur, but none of them are gin-based Stone Sours. By the 1980s, bourbon or amaretto were the most fashionable bases for a Stone Sour.

Alcohol content:

• 1.1 standard drinks
• 13.87% alc./vol. (27.74° proof)
• 15.3 grams of pure alcohol