Amaretto Sour

Amaretto, cask-strength bourbon, lemon, and egg white — Morgenthaler's 2012 Clyde Common reformulation that rehabilitated a universally dismissed 1970s drink.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler's 2012 Amaretto Sour is one of the most discussed individual recipe publications in the modern craft cocktail era, a single blog post that rehabilitated a drink universally dismissed as a low-quality 1970s relic. Morgenthaler, then bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon — a restaurant bar that had become one of the Pacific Northwest's most respected cocktail destinations — published his reformulation with the premise that the Amaretto Sour was not conceptually flawed but simply made badly. The original 1970s formula was amaretto plus bottled sour mix: the amaretto provided almond sweetness but insufficient alcohol, and the sour mix contributed synthetic citrus without real acid. Morgenthaler's intervention addressed both problems. He added cask-strength bourbon to the amaretto, solving the low-ABV issue by boosting the spirit backbone without altering the almond-forward flavor significantly. He substituted fresh lemon juice for sour mix, providing genuine citric acid that cuts through the sweetness. He incorporated egg white for texture and foam. The result was a drink that looked, tasted, and functioned like a serious craft cocktail while remaining true to the flavor the original was trying to achieve. The post's viral spread through cocktail media prompted bars around the world to add the version to their menus, and the Morgenthaler Amaretto Sour is now the standard by which all other versions are judged.