The Frisco Sour

 

One housekeeping note: Going forward, I am shaking up the layout of cocktail recipe posts. Lately, I've come to abhor the trend of cooking blogs wrapping a recipe in a detailed, verbose dissertation of personal discovery, often with a corresponding photo essay. Invariably the actual recipe, you know, the list of ingredients, their proportions, and preparation techniques becomes a footnote to a otherwise lengthy post. Adding insult to annoyance, countless dynamic inline advertisements are injected into the page as you scroll down which not only slows the whole scrolling process, but often interrupts attempts to instantly transport your view to the bottom of the page to get to the recipe. So, in the spirit of leading off every impressions post with a 'tl;dr summary' before delving into the nitty gritty, I shall lead off cocktail-centric posts with the recipe, then the commentary follows. Let's get to mixing!

Ingredients

• 2.0 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey (bourbon tilts to sweetness whereas rye tilts to herbal savoriness)
  
• 0.5 ounces Bénédictine
• 0.5 ounces lemon juice
• Lemon Twist
  

Composition

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake well until the drink is thoroughly chilled. Strain into your preferred glass and squeeze the lemon twist over the surface of the drink, optionally dropping the twist in for garnish.

 

Commentary

Oftentimes a cocktail's deliciousness is proportional to its ingredient list. Few and far between are the libations whose tastiness dwarfs its components, but today's concoction, the Frisco Sour, is just such a drink. I came across this recipe while researching a cocktail mentioned in a chapter of Lew Bryson's enjoyable 'Tasting Whiskey'. Lew's book mentions the Frisco cocktail and after a bit of Google research, I learned of the Frisco Sour variant. Both versions contain rye (or bourbon) and the herbal French liqueur Bénédictine. A Frisco contains only one additional ingredient, a lemon twist, whereas a Frisco Sour adds an equal measure of lemon juice matching the Bénédictine.

Personally, I opted for the Frisco Sour as I always gravitate towards cocktails containing fresh citrus. As for the primary spirit, many recipes call for a rye whiskey, but using a bourbon also works quite well. The bourbon version tends to be a bit sweeter and sips like a nicely spiked lemonade whereas the rye version tends to be a bit more savory and lessens the lemon's presence. While I've found this drink is fairly consistent regardless of which bourbon is used, it's a different story when using rye. By law, all rye whiskey produced in the United States is distilled from a mash containing a minimum of 51% rye grain. Many producers stick fairly close to that 51% requirement, but some opt for a mash containing upwards of 95% rye. The difference between a 51% rye and a 95% rye is noticeable. Both are delicious but know, as the rye percentage increases, the sweetness decreases and the grassy/herbal influence increases. Tailor your whiskey selection to your preferences but don't be afraid to experiment.

 

A half-ounce of Bénédictine may seem like a strong pour given Bénédictine's unique honey/herbal vibe, but it is amazing how seamlessly the French liqueur melds with the whiskey and the lemon juice. Keen readers will note that the Frisco Sour is really nothing more than a spin on a Whiskey Sour. While true, I've been reading about folks tinkering with further variations, including substituting Chartreuse for the Bénédictine. Also some use a combination of lemon and lime juice, though I would not recommend solely using lime juice as this drink definitely requires a bit of lemon in my opinion.

That's all for now, until next time, cheers!

 

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby