Amaro Stone Sour

A bright, easy-drinking sour that blends amaro with orange juice and lemon for a bittersweet citrus cocktail that pleases all palates.

The Stone Sour is an American bar classic that extends the Whiskey Sour by adding orange juice alongside the standard lemon juice, softening the drink's acid profile and producing something more fruit-forward and accessible than the pure sour structure. The first documented use of the Stone Sour name in print is debated, with some sources placing it in the mid-20th century and others tracing it to earlier sour variations. The format found mainstream commercial adoption through the 1970s and 1980s, when American supper clubs and casual dining bars favored modified sours with fruit juice additions as gateway cocktails for customers who found straight whiskey sours too sharp. Applying the Stone Sour template to amaro rather than whiskey produces a result that is simultaneously lighter in alcohol — most amari run between 25-35% ABV against whiskey's standard 40% — and considerably more herbally complex. The bitter liqueur replaces both the base spirit and much of the need for a separate sweetener, since amaro's sugar content performs the sweetening function while its botanicals add the complexity that whiskey's grain and barrel character provides in the original. The orange juice continues to play its moderating role, softening the amaro's bitterness in the same way it softens the whiskey's edge in the standard version.