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bittersourherbal

Paper Plane

Bourbon, Aperol, a bittersweet amaro and lemon in dead-equal parts — a modern bitter-sour classic.

Difficulty
medium
Prep time
5 min
Strength
21.5% ABV
Glassware
Coupe glass
Base
whisky
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • Bourbon
    20ml
  • Aperol
    20ml
  • Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino)
    20ml
  • Fresh lemon juice
    20ml
Scale for a party

Method

  1. Add the bourbon, Aperol, amaro and lemon juice to a shaker with ice.
  2. Shake hard for 10–15 seconds until well chilled.
  3. Double-strain into a chilled coupe glass.
  4. Serve without garnish — the drink's pale amber colour is the point.

Equipment

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

  • Cocktail shaker

    Household swap: A secure jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid, shaken firmly over the sink.

  • Citrus juicer

    Household swap: Squeeze the lemon by hand, or press it with a fork over a bowl to catch the pips.

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 Amaro

    Best substitute: Campari

    This is the modifier in this drink.

    Quantity: Reduce to 15ml and add 5ml simple syrup to balance the extra bitterness

    Flavour impact: Campari is considerably more bitter and less honeyed than a nutty amaro, giving a sharper, drier drink closer to a bourbon Negroni riff.

    What changes

    Expect less sweetness, more bitterness and less strength. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.

    Sweetness ↓
    Less sweetness leaves the acid and the spirit more exposed, so the drink will taste sharper and drier than it should.
    Bitterness ↑
    Bitterness builds across a drink rather than announcing itself, so this will read as a longer, drier finish.
    Strength ↓
    Campari is 25% ABV against 32%. A weaker bottle makes a softer drink — genuinely pleasant, but a different drink from the one written down.
    Character
    Both are herbal, and you lose bittersweet, complex and varies by style, and you gain bitter, citrusy and bold. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Add a little more syrup, a small amount at a time, until the edges come back together.
    • Pour slightly less, or lengthen the drink a little, and let the sweetness catch up.
    • Pour a fraction more, or shorten the dilution slightly, to keep the shape of the original.
    Moderate confidenceA workable substitute, but it changes the drink's character more than the maker might expect.Shifts the drinkBecomes a variation

  • Instead of Aperol

    Best substitute: Campari

    This is the modifier in this drink.

    Quantity: Reduce to 15ml

    Flavour impact: Campari is more bitter and less orange-forward than Aperol, pulling the whole drink drier.

    What changes

    Expect less sweetness, more bitterness, more intensity and more strength. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.

    Sweetness ↓
    Less sweetness leaves the acid and the spirit more exposed, so the drink will taste sharper and drier than it should.
    Bitterness ↑
    Bitterness builds across a drink rather than announcing itself, so this will read as a longer, drier finish.
    Intensity ↑
    A more intensely flavoured ingredient will start to dominate the components around it.
    Strength ↑
    Campari is 25% ABV against 11%. A stronger bottle raises the alcohol in the finished drink and, with it, the perceived dryness and heat.
    Character
    you lose bittersweet, orange, light and approachable, and you gain bitter, herbal, citrusy and bold. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Add a little more syrup, a small amount at a time, until the edges come back together.
    • Pour slightly less, or lengthen the drink a little, and let the sweetness catch up.
    • Scale it back by a third and let the other ingredients hold their share.
    • Pour a little less, or add slightly more dilution, to land where the recipe intended.
    Moderate confidenceA common but noticeably more bitter substitution.Shifts the drinkBecomes a variation

Make it better

  • Measure all four ingredients precisely; unlike drinks with a dominant spirit, this one relies on genuinely equal parts to hit its balance.
  • A nutty, honeyed amaro (the style most associated with Amaro Nonino) works best — a very bitter, medicinal amaro can push the drink too far toward astringency.
  • Serve it up and cold; there's no ice in the glass, so pour into a properly chilled coupe and drink promptly.
  • Shake hard for 12-15 seconds with plenty of ice — a proper shake chills and dilutes the drink in one step.
  • Use freshly squeezed citrus juice rather than bottled — the aromatic oils fade fast once juiced, so squeeze just before making the drink.

Rescue this drink

Too bitter
Check your amaro isn't an especially intense, medicinal style — swap for a gentler, honeyed one, or add a 5ml dash of simple syrup.
Tastes unbalanced or muddled
Re-measure each of the four ingredients with a jigger; small errors compound quickly in an equal-parts drink.
Too sour
Reduce the lemon juice to 15ml and keep the other three ingredients at 20ml.
Cloudy in the glass
Double-strain through a fine strainer as well as the shaker's built-in strainer to catch small ice shards.
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.
Shaken too longgeneral guidance
Ten to fifteen seconds is a full shake. Beyond that the ice fractures and keeps diluting while you are still working, so the drink arrives cold, thin and slightly foamy when it should be sharp. Shake hard and briefly rather than gently and long — the two are not interchangeable.
Too sweetgeneral guidance
Add a small amount of fresh citrus juice or a dash of bitters to bring the balance back — adjust gradually and taste as you go.
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 secure jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid, shaken firmly over the sink.

Make ahead & storage

Batch the base, finish at serving

Batch the 3 stable components days ahead and add fresh lemon juice when you pour.

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.

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

off-dry, sharp, light — a spirit and modifier drink served straight up, no ice.

Off-dry

Dry → Sweet

Sweetened enough to take the edge off without reading as a sweet drink.

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

Sharp

Soft → Sharp

Properly sharp. This is the axis the drink is built on.

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

Bitter

Gentle → Bitter

Bitter enough to be one of the reasons you chose this drink.

What drives it: Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino) — provides the bitterness.

Light

Light → Rich

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

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

Bold

Delicate → Bold

Bold. This drink is the loudest thing on the table.

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

What you smell first

  • Citrus peelLeads

    From Aperol, Fresh lemon juice

  • Fresh herb

    From Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino)

  • Vanilla

    From Bourbon

  • Baking spice

    From Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino)

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
    Bourbon 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 bourbon 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's too bitter

    Likely cause
    Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino) is doing this deliberately, but bitterness also *builds* across a drink rather than announcing itself — the last mouthful is more bitter than the first even though nothing changed.
    What to change
    Lengthen it slightly, or add a small amount of sweetener. Do not add more of anything sour; acid sharpens bitterness rather than covering it.
    What that does
    The bitterness softens and the drink gets longer. If you were hoping to keep it short and strong, this is the trade you are making.

  • It's too strong

    Likely cause
    Bourbon dominates by design here — this is a drink built to be sipped, and it is under-diluted more often than it is over-poured.
    What to change
    Shaking for longer, or add a measured 5–10ml of water. Both are the same correction; one is just more honest about it.
    What that does
    Alcohol heat drops and the aromatics open up — a slightly diluted spirit-forward drink usually smells better, not worse.

  • 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 fresh herb, 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 4 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a spirit and modifier 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
2/5
Sourness
3/5
Bitterness
3/5
Strength
3/5
Fruitiness
2/5
Freshness
2/5
Creaminess
0/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate onlyBased on a standard 20ml equal-parts pour; amaro sugar and ABV vary noticeably by brand and style.
Calories
131 kcal
Sugar
9 g
Carbohydrates
10 g
Alcohol units (UK)
1.7
US standard drinks
0.97
ABV
21.5%
Serving size
80 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~95 kcal from alcohol, ~36 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 98–164 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Assumes 20ml each of bourbon (40% ABV), Aperol (11% ABV) and a nutty amaro (assumed 35% ABV), plus 20ml fresh lemon juice.

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

Variations

  • Paper Plane No. 2

    Swap the bourbon for rye whisky for a spicier, drier backbone.

  • Gin Paper Plane

    Replace the bourbon with gin for a more botanical, floral variation that leans closer to a Last Word.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A shaken build: a spirit and modifier whisky-based drink, served straight up, no ice — light and lively in the mouth.

Spirit and modifier

Spirit combined with an aromatised or flavoured modifier and little else — concentrated, and served small for exactly that reason.

  • Base

    Bourbon

  • Modifier

    Aperol

    Amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as Nonino)

  • Sour element

    Fresh lemon juice

Drinks built this way are collected as the Sour family.

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

Straight up, no ice

Coupe glass · 80ml

Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 80ml is the right size for it.

Texture and aroma

Light and lively

Shaking whips air through the drink, giving a lighter, briefly frothy body that settles as it stands.

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 Paper Plane

Created by bartender Sam Ross in Chicago in 2007, commissioned for GQ magazine and named after the M.I.A. song 'Paper Planes'.

Unusually well documented for a cocktail: Ross created it for a named commission in a named year, and the recipe was published at the time.

Family

Sour

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

1980 onwardOther modern classics drinks →

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

A well-documented modern classic with a fixed equal-parts recipe, though 'amaro' covers a broad category and results vary by the exact bottle used.

Moderate confidence