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Aperol Sour Cocktail, a frothy delight

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There was a time in my life when if you told me I would be drinking a cocktail with raw egg white, I would have said you were crazy.

I didn’t realize that when shaken in a cocktail shaker, egg whites get frothy and foamy like meringue and add a lovely creamy body to a drink that’s so much lighter than actual cream.

Aperol, gin, and lemons

In fact, egg white drinks, like the classic Pisco Sour or Ramos Gin Fizz, are some of my favorite drinks. They often appear in bright, sour, citrusy drinks, which makes sense as a pairing if you’ve ever had lemon meringue pie.

Hand pouring Aperol from jigger into shaker

In this drink, the main player is Aperol, an Italian amaro with notes of bitter orange, rhubarb, and loads of herbs.

It’s similar to Campari, but it’s much milder on the bitter front and hence much easier to like.

If you’ve avoided amaros because you’ve found Campari to be too bracingly bitter, you might give Aperol a try. It’s about as sour and bitter as grapefruit juice with an underlying fruity sweetness.

Hand pouring gin from jigger into shaker

Here it gets paired with lemon juice, an egg white, some simple syrup, and a splash of gin.

It gets shaken with ice and strained into a chilled glass and garnished with a twist of grapefruit peel.

Hands separating an egg into cocktail shaker

Egg white drinks often employ a technique known as a dry shake, that is, a shaking the ingredients without the ice first to add volume to the egg white and emulsify the ingredients before adding the ice and shaking again to chill and dilute the drink.

Hand adding ice to cocktail shaker

This drink skips the dry shake because it only needs a modest layer of froth at the top.

It is important to shake it hard for at least a minute though to build enough body and foam in the drink.

Pouring Aperol Sour

It’s a lovely citrusy refreshing cocktail that would be a great alternative to the Mimosa for a brunch drink.

It’s light and easy on the alcohol (and you could skip the gin if you wanted to make it even lower alcohol), and it would also make a great aperitif. It’s a pink and puckery cocktail that’s great to have in your arsenal.

Aperol Sour
Yield: 1 cocktail

Aperol Sour Cocktail

Aperol Sour

This drink is tart, light, and refreshing. It makes a great pre-dinner or brunch drink. Aperol is an Italian amaro that’s similar to Campari, but much milder with notes of bitter orange, rhubarb, and herbs. Use any gin you like here. I particularly like this drink with a gin that is heavy on the floral botanicals. Hendricks is a good widely available option, but a classic London Dry style gin like Beefeater would also be nice here. You could even leave the gin out entirely for an even lower alcohol drink. As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite kind of shaker is the two-piece metal kind, and I swear by a squeezer like this one for juicing lemons and limes.

Prep Time 2 minutes
Total Time 2 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces Aperol
  • 1/2 ounce gin
  • 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 ounce simple syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • strip of lemon peel, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Add the Aperol, gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white to a cocktail shaker. Add ice. Shake hard for at least a minute until chilled and lightly frothy. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and top with a twist of lemon peel. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

1

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 218Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 62mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 1gSugar: 27gProtein: 4g

Post originally published on October 30, 2014

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Will

Sunday 8th of November 2020

Wow, this is too delicious! Looks great too, it's a winner.

Rosie

Thursday 16th of July 2020

Next time you should dry shake the egg white to get to be properly frothy. It sticks to the ice and doesn't expand when shaken this way :)

Mary Kasprzak

Thursday 16th of July 2020

I think I mention here that for this particular drink, I don't like a dry shake and like the body, but minimal foam. For something like a pisco sour, I do recommend a dry shake.

Roxana

Thursday 14th of March 2019

The use of egg white is quite interesting to me. And how you mentioned about the light creaminess it adds. A great tip that can be used in many other drinks.

Taylor Kiser

Thursday 14th of March 2019

I can't wait to try this! Looks so refreshing! Cheers!

Suzy

Thursday 14th of March 2019

Adding this to my weekend plans!

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