Name: Grand Sidecar
Total time: 2 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Grand Marnier; 30 ml Lemon juice; 15 ml Chilled water

Grand Sidecar
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
2 oz	Grand Marnier or other cognac orange liqueur
1 oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₂ oz	Chilled water omit if using wet ice

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
RIM glass with sugar (moisten the outside edge with orange juice and dip into sugar).
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A riff on the classic Sidecar that's even simpler to make but equally tasty.

Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge consists of 51% cognac so there is no need to add cognac to make a great Sidecar, simply add lemon juice. This drink benefits from a touch of dilution so also works well served on-the-rocks in an old-fashioned glass.

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History:

Created in June 2005 by yours truly, London, England.
See: Sidecar history

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

One serving of Grand Sidecar contains 154 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
16.81% alc./vol. (16.81° proof)
17.6 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.

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Theo Clark

27th April at 06:43

This is a delightfully simple cocktail and a shockingly excellent sidecar. I found a barspoon of simple syrup brought the drink into perfect balance, personally.

Meredith Frost

25th April at 19:45

I’ve been looking for something that is really easy to make and really tasty. This fits the bill. Not too sweet and not too boozy. It’s like Goldilocks.

John CARR

29th March at 12:48

Got snookered by the local lemons on my first attempt and had to do a lot of rebalancing as could barely taste the GM. Cut it to just over half for the second attempt. Dilution however was perfect. Went with Big Rock version which was excellent. ..With the citrus reigned in as appropriate to the supply, the beautiful honeyed notes of the liqueur were really on show. Great drink!

Loïc Pierre

30th December 2024 at 16:59

Simple, efficient. Maybe not as subtle as a Larchmont for instance. It's funny but the taste makes me feel it's kind of "old school".

Tom Richardson

12th June 2024 at 09:47

I did not think I would like this but I did. Its quite nice. I didn't think it needed a sugared rim so I did not do that.

Peter McCarthy

6th February 2024 at 05:03

I just have Gran Gala right now, and like how it tastes in this... Very margarita-like. Is this worth trying again with Grand Marnier, too?

Patrick Brady

30th September 2023 at 23:03

Just delicious and so well balanced. If you've been staring at a bottle of Grand Marnier for too long, you have another great excuse to open it...

Jose Cruz

2nd February 2023 at 05:29

too simple to be this damn good !

Kirk McElhearn

8th September 2022 at 23:36

I love this. Easy to make, and a bit of bitters livens it up.

Peter McCarthy

6th February 2024 at 05:03

What kind of bitters?

1 reply

Calvin Grant

25th July 2022 at 03:39

Superb two ingredient cocktail! I now have a new respect for Grand Marinier. Fresh orange aromas, was it the zest, was it the liqueur... tasted great after a Last Word (Difford's version).

Nathalie O'Flynn

24th October 2024 at 17:50

This is so funny, we are planning our cocktails for Saturday and had already chosen the Last Word for lunch and came to this cocktail as the evening choice how spooky.

1 reply

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