Christmas Day Clementine Sour

By Rosie Schaap

Published December 23, 2014

  • Melina Hammer for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
About 1 minute
Rating
5(171)
Comments
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Here’s a cocktail that’s both a tribute to my mother (who loved whiskey sours laced with amaretto) and to my favorite flavors of the Christmas season: clementines, cinnamon and cloves. Juice the clementines a day in advance to save yourself some trouble on the holiday.

Featured in: The Flavor of Christmas in a Glass

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Ingredients

Yield:1 drink

  • 1 ½ ounces bourbon, preferably Elijah Craig 12-year-old

  • ½ ounce Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

  • ¼ ounce spiced brown sugar syrup (see recipe)

  • Juice of 1 clementine (about 1 ounce), plus ribbon of peel for garnish

  • 1 egg white (optional)

  • ½ teaspoon Luxardo Amaretto (enough to rinse inside of coupe glass)

  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a shaker filled with ice, combine the bourbon, curaçao, brown sugar syrup and clementine juice (and egg white, if using). Shake vigorously for 30 seconds.

  2. Step 2

    In a chilled coupe glass, swirl enough amaretto to coat the inside. Strain shaken drink into coupe. Top with the bitters. Garnish with the ribbon of clementine peel.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
171 user ratings
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Comments

John

Oh come on. Elijah Craig 12 is a nice bourbon straight up. But you won't be able to taste the difference between EC any any other of hundreds of cheaper bourbons once you add Luxardo, Clementine and Curacao. I don't spare money when it comes to drinking bourbon. But you won't be able to taste the difference with all these ingredients. I know it says "preferably" but that is a misleading statement as if EC 12 would taste better in this drink than others.

Charles

When I made this, sweet juice+sweet liqueurs+sweet syrup=way too sweet and just not interesting. I added lemon juice: 1/2 oz. made it taste more like a sour, and it was delicious, but the clementine character was less noticeable. 1/4 oz of lemon made it less sour than most sours, still a bit sweet, but kept more of the character of the original drink, and was still delicious. This "sour" needs to be more sour to balance the sweetness.

skialta100

Use a good mid tier booze. If you use the egg ( and please do!) dry shake (without ice) for twenty seconds, then add the ice and shake for another ten.

Kylie

Good, but too strong for me to enjoy as a sipper.

Adding more bitters?

I wonder if those who said it was too sweet added more bitters. It seems that would make the balance?

Miranda

We are making these today for my sister, Clementine, whose birthday is Christmas Day! Perfect!!

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