Brandy is lifted by maraschino and orange curaçao, snapped into balance with lemon and finished with two dashes of aromatic bitters, so it drinks bright, cold and faintly cherried around a rich brandy core. Served straight up in a sugar-crusted glass with a long lemon peel curled inside, each sip meets the sweet crunch of the rim and a perfume of citrus oil — the brandy-and-orange-liqueur sour the Sidecar was built on.
Garnish: Sugar Rim, Lemon Peel
Stirred · Coupe · Up
rinse
Rub a cut lemon around the rim of a chilled coupe and dip the edge in fine sugar to form a crust; curl a long lemon peel inside the glass.
add
Add brandy, maraschino, curaçao, lemon juice, simple syrup, and aromatic bitters to an ice-filled mixing glass.
stir
Stir until well chilled and properly diluted.
strain
Strain into the prepared sugar-crusted coupe, served straight up without ice.
Joseph Santini, a bartender working in 1850s New Orleans, devised the Brandy Crusta at the Jewel of the South. Jerry Thomas brought it into print in his 1862 Bar-Tender's Guide and credited Santini as its creator, making him the lone bartender that book names. Thomas shook his version over shaved ice, while the modern IBA spec, which lists the drink among The Unforgettables, stirs it in a mixing glass instead. Its marriage of spirit, orange liqueur and lemon anticipated both the Sidecar and the Margarita.