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An Amaretto Sour in a rocks glass with a frothy top and a cherry garnishPhoto by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels
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Amaretto Sour

Almond-sweet amaretto shaken with lemon and a whisper of egg white — nutty, tart and silky.

Difficulty
medium
Prep time
5 min
Strength
9.7% ABV
Glassware
Rocks glass
Base
liqueur led
Serves
1

Related drinks

Ingredients

  • Amaretto
    45ml
  • Fresh lemon juice
    20ml
  • Simple syrup
    15ml
  • Egg whiteoptional

    Or 20ml aquafaba for a vegan version

    20ml

Garnish: Maraschino cherry, Angostura bitters dash on the foam

Scale for a party

Method

  1. Add the amaretto, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white to a shaker without ice.
  2. Shake hard for 15 seconds without ice to whip the egg white (a 'dry shake').
  3. Add ice and shake again for 10–15 seconds until well chilled.
  4. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
  5. Garnish with a cherry and, if you like, a light dash of bitters dropped onto the foam.

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

  • Cocktail shaker

    Household swap: A jar with a very tight lid works, though the dry shake needs a firm, confident seal.

  • Hawthorne strainer

    Household swap: A slotted spoon held across the shaker opening while pouring.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

  • Instead of Egg White

    Best substitute: Aquafaba

    This is the foaming agent in this drink.

    Quantity: Use the same amount, about 20ml

    Flavour impact: Near-identical foam and texture with no flavour difference worth noting.

    What changes

    Aquafaba sits close enough to Egg White that the drink stays recognisably itself.

    Character
    Both are neutral and foamy, and you lose silky, and you gain faintly beany. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
    High confidenceAquafaba is a well-established vegan substitute for egg white in shaken sours.Close swap

Make it better

  • The dry shake (without ice) is what builds the foam — don't skip it if you want the silky head this drink is known for.
  • Use fresh lemon juice; bottled juice makes the sweetness feel flat and one-dimensional against the amaretto.
  • If skipping egg white, shake a little longer with ice to build some texture through aeration alone.

Rescue this drink

No foam
Make sure you dry-shake (no ice) hard for a full 15 seconds first — this is what whips the egg white into foam.
Too sweet
Add 5ml more lemon juice and reduce the simple syrup to 10ml.
Too tart
Add a touch more simple syrup, a teaspoon at a time.
Tastes eggy or raw
Shake harder and longer — an under-shaken egg white sour can taste flat rather than silky.
Tastes thin, with no weight to itgeneral guidance
A short shaken drink with nothing rich in it depends on sugar and dilution for body. Try a slightly richer syrup — two parts sugar to one of water rather than equal parts — which adds weight without adding much more sweetness. Egg white or aquafaba does the same job more dramatically, and turns it into a sour.
The foam collapses, or there is far too much of itgeneral guidance
Collapsing usually means the dry shake was too short or came after the ice rather than before it. Too much foam is the opposite problem — an over-long dry shake with a small drink underneath. Fifteen seconds dry, then ten with ice, is the ratio to keep; if the head still runs over the glass, the drink is too small for the amount of white in it.
Texture looks split or curdledgeneral guidance
This usually happens when citrus is added too fast to dairy, or the drink sat too long before serving. Add citrus gradually while stirring next time — a split drink often can't be fully recovered once it happens.
Too sourgeneral guidance
Add a little more sweetener (simple syrup or the cocktail's usual sweetening ingredient), a small amount at a time.
Served too warmgeneral guidance
Chill the glass, ice and every ingredient ahead of time — a warm pour is the fastest way to lose a cold drink's balance. For one serving, there's no real fix beyond rebuilding it properly chilled; for a batch, keep everything refrigerated until the moment of serving and add ice last.
Over-diluted (tastes watery)general guidance
Likely shaken too long, or with too much ice surface area. For one serving there's no fixing it after the fact — rebuild with fewer, larger ice cubes and a shorter shake. Planning a batch? Shorten the ice-contact time across the whole round, not just this glass.
Under-diluted (tastes harsh or too concentrated)general guidance
For one serving, stir in a few drops of chilled water to open it up. For a batch, extend the shake time slightly on the next round.
No cocktail shakergeneral guidance
A jar with a very tight lid works, though the dry shake needs a firm, confident seal.
No cocktail strainergeneral guidance
A slotted spoon held across the shaker opening while pouring.
Missing the garnishgeneral guidance
No maraschino cherry? Skip it if you don't have one — the bitters dash on the foam is the part that matters most.

Make ahead & storage

Batch the base, finish at serving

Batch the 2 stable components days ahead and add fresh lemon juice when you pour. The egg white is optional and cannot be batched — shake it in per drink if you want the foam.

Add about 27% water to the batch to replace what the ice would otherwise contribute, or it will pour noticeably harsher than a fresh one.

Fresh lemon juice:
Fresh citrus loses its aroma within hours and turns dull. Squeeze it on the day.
Egg white:
Optional, and the foam it makes has to be shaken fresh — skip it for a batched version or shake it in per serving.

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

sweet, very sharp, light — a sour-structured drink served over ice.

Sweet

Dry → Sweet

Openly sweet, and balanced by something else rather than hidden.

What drives it: Simple syrup — carries the most sugar into the glass.

Very sharp

Soft → Sharp

Bracingly sour — the first sip is meant to wake you up.

What drives it: Fresh lemon juice — supplies the acidity.

Light

Light → Rich

Light-bodied. It refreshes rather than satisfies, which is usually the intention.

What drives it: Amaretto — adds most of the weight.

Moderate

Delicate → Bold

Moderate: assertive enough to hold its own, mild enough for a second.

What drives it: Amaretto — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

  • Citrus peelLeads

    From Fresh lemon juice

  • NuttyLeads

    From Amaretto

Every aroma here comes from the liquid itself; nothing is layered on top.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — each with the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

  • It's too sweet

    Likely cause
    Simple syrup is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
    What to change
    Cut simple syrup by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a squeeze of citrus is faster than starting again.
    What that does
    The drink will read sharper as well as less sweet, because the acid stops being balanced. That is usually the intention, but it is a bigger change than it sounds.

  • It's too sour

    Likely cause
    Fresh lemon juice varies more than any other ingredient in the drink. Limes differ by weeks of ripeness, and a sharp one can be half again as acidic as a mild one at the same measure.
    What to change
    Add sweetener a few millilitres at a time rather than diluting — you are correcting a ratio, not a concentration.
    What that does
    Sourness recedes and the drink gains a little weight. Overshoot and you will be reading the too-sweet entry above instead.

  • It tastes weak

    Likely cause
    Usually dilution rather than measurement: shaking adds water as it chills, and wet or small ice adds far more of it than cold, large ice does.
    What to change
    Use larger, colder ice and work faster. Adding more spirit fixes the symptom and unbalances everything else.
    What that does
    The drink gains definition without gaining sugar. It will also read as slightly sharper, which is what 'more presence' usually means in practice.

  • It's watery

    Likely cause
    Shaking adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
    What to change
    Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
    What that does
    More flavour concentration at the same temperature. Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — this is a target, not a direction.

  • It doesn't smell of anything

    Likely cause
    This drink's aroma comes from citrus peel and nutty, carried in the liquid. Serving it too cold suppresses that: volatile compounds do not leave a very cold drink.
    What to change
    Let it sit for a minute before drinking, and use a glass that narrows towards the rim to concentrate what does escape.
    What that does
    More of the aroma escapes and the drink reads as more intense. The cost is temperature: a drink left to warm also dilutes faster, so this is a trade against how long it stays right.

  • It tastes one-dimensional

    Likely cause
    With 3 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a sour-structured drink is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
    What to change
    Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: fresh citrus rather than bottled, a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
    What that does
    More going on at the same strength and sweetness. Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one.

Taste profile

Sweetness
3/5
Sourness
4/5
Bitterness
0/5
Strength
2/5
Fruitiness
2/5
Freshness
2/5
Creaminess
1/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate onlyAmaretto sugar content and egg white size vary between brands and eggs.
Calories
170 kcal
Sugar
16 g
Carbohydrates
18 g
Alcohol units (UK)
1.3
US standard drinks
0.71
ABV
9.7%
Serving size
130 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~70 kcal from alcohol, ~100 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 128–213 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Based on 45ml amaretto at 28% ABV, 20ml lemon juice, 15ml simple syrup and one small egg white.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

  • Disaronno Sour (no egg)

    Skip the egg white and shake with ice only for a simpler, still well-balanced version.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A shaken build: a sour-structured liqueur-led-based drink, served over ice — foamed in the mouth.

Sour-structured

Something sour and something sweet held in balance over a base — the structure behind the whole sour family and everything descended from it.

  • Modifier

    Amaretto

    Liqueurs modify: they flavour and usually sweeten at the same time.

  • Sour element

    Fresh lemon juice

    A short, sharp measure — recorded acidity 5/5, and nothing sharper is poured short, so this is the sour element.

  • Sweet element

    Simple syrup

    A syrup — its whole job in the drink is to sweeten and to add a little body along with it.

  • Foaming agent

    Egg white (optional)

    Egg builds foam rather than richness — it changes the texture, not the flavour.

Drinks built this way are collected as the Sour family.

4 components' roles areworked out from the ingredient's category and recorded taste attributes rather than set by hand — the reasoning is shown above so you can disagree with it.

Technique

shaken

Ice is thrown against the liquid and against itself, chipping fragments off and driving air through the mix. Chilling, dilution and aeration all happen at once and cannot be separated.

A lighter, briefly frothy body and a cloudy appearance that settles as it stands. The aeration blunts alcoholic heat, which is why a shaken drink tastes softer than a stirred one of the same strength.

What it ruins: Clarity, and any carbonation. A shaken spirits-only drink arrives cloudy with ice shards floating in it, and shaking anything fizzy is the one rule with no exceptions.

Everything about shaking →How the technique works →

Dilution

During mixing, then strained

Water from ice typically makes up around 30% of the finished drink for a shaken build (commonly 25–35%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Over ice

Rocks glass · 130ml

Served on ice, so it keeps chilling in the glass. A larger, colder, slower drink than the same spirits served straight up.

Texture and aroma

Foamed

A foaming agent builds a dense head that softens the first sip and carries aroma up to the nose.

No dedicated aromatic component — what you smell is the spirit itself, which is a deliberate choice in a drink this spare.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

Origin of the Amaretto Sour

American bar classic built on Italian almond-flavoured liqueur, popular from the mid-20th century onward.

Family

Sour

2 parts spirit · 1 part citrus · 1 part sweetener — shaken, strained, served up or over ice.

On drinks history

Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.

History and culture →

Try this next

Use up your ingredients

Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.

Related tools

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

Recipe confidence

Widely known drink, but ratios vary considerably between bars and home recipes.

Moderate confidence