Amaretto Sour is one of the most popular Amaretto alcoholic drinks in the world! It’s a classic cocktail with a perfect balance of sweet and tart.
Contents
Simple Amaretto sour recipe
The Amaretto sour is an iconic drink with amaretto liqueur. It balances the sweet, almond-flavored liqueur of amaretto with the tartness of fresh lemon juice. Its recipe is super easy. You only need 2 ingredients: Amaretto liqueur and lemon juice.
The liqueur is sweet enough to balance the sourness of the lemon. In this recipe, I didn’t use sour mix – a pre-made mixture that typically includes lemon juice and sugar. This will make the drink overly sweet.
This Amaretto sour drink can be enjoyed in many ways. You can have it on its own or with appetizers like cheese platters, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, or prosciutto-wrapped melon.
It enhances main dishes like grilled chicken, pork with a fruit glaze, seared scallops with citrus butter, or a vegetarian stir-fry with cashews. The drink also goes great with desserts like chocolate truffles, spiced nuts, candied pecans, tiramisu, lemon tart, or almond biscotti.
Here’s how to make Amaretto Sour:
Easy Amaretto Sour Recipe
Nutrition
Ingredients
Classic Amaretto Sour recipe
- 2 oz Amaretto
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
- Ice
- Maraschino cherry and/or orange slice for garnish optional
Amaretto Sour with sour mix
- 2 oz amaretto
- Ice
- Lemon wedge for garnish
- Maraschino cherry for garnish
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
Classic recipe
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Add the Amaretto and fresh lemon juice
- Shake well until chilled.
- Strain the mixture into an ice-filled rocks glass.
- Garnish with a maraschino cherry and/or orange slice if desired.
- Serve and enjoy!
Recipe with sweet and sour mix
- In a small saucepan, combine equal parts fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, granulated sugar, and water.
- Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before transferring to a glass jar or bottle. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Add the 2 oz amaretto and 1 oz homemade sour mix to the shaker.
- Shake the mixture for about 15-20 seconds to chill the ingredients and combine them thoroughly.
- Strain the mixture into a rocks glass filled with ice.
- Garnish with a lemon slice and/or cherry if desired. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Use a sugar-free simple syrup or monk fruit sweetener for a lower-sugar version.
- Up the lemon juice a bit and reduce the syrup to balance the tang.
- Swap Amaretto with almond extract (just a drop!) + apple juice for a fun non-alcoholic twist.
SIMILAR RECIPES
Variations
Like other iconic cocktails, this drink has lots of variations. Here are some of them:
- Amaretto Stone Sour combines amaretto with orange juice and a sour mix. To make it, mix equal parts of amaretto with orange juice and a sweet and sour mix.
- Amaretto Sour with egg white has a frothy and creamy texture with a froth sitting on top of the drink. To make this cocktail, add a pasteurized egg white into the cocktail shaker along with the other ingredients before shaking. If you go vegan, use aquafaba, the liquid left over from cooked chickpeas, instead of egg whites.
- Virgin version is a non-alcoholic version.
- Mix 1 oz of almond syrup or amaretto-flavored syrup with 1 oz of fresh orange or lemon juice and 1 oz of sour mix.
- Garnish with a lemon slice or cherry.
- Liquor versions
- Bourbon: Combine equal parts bourbon and amaretto for a more balanced and complex flavor profile that retains the sweetness of the original.
- Whiskey: Includes whiskey along with amaretto, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
- Recipe with grenadine adds a sweet and fruity flavor to the drink. To make this drink, just combine amaretto liqueur, sweet sour mix, grenadine, and tart cherry juice.
- Frozen Amaretto Sour blends 1 ½ oz of amaretto, 1 oz of fresh lemon juice, ½ oz of simple syrup, and 1 cup of ice until smooth.
- Sprite version mixes 2 oz amaretto, 1 oz fresh lemon juice, 1/2 oz simple syrup, and Sprite (or any lemon-lime soda).
Tried this last night, and it was a hit! So easy and delicious.
Made it exactly as written, and it turned out amazing! The sweet and sour balance was spot-on.