Do I really need the egg white?

No, and the version without it has a name: the Amaretto Stone Sour, which usually adds a splash of orange juice and skips the foam entirely. But the egg white isn't there for show. It rounds the edges, softens the tartness, and gives you that silky cap that makes the first sip feel like more than the sum of cheap parts. If raw egg worries you, aquafaba works fine. If you're in a hurry and don't care, drink it flat. It'll still taste good.

What bourbon should I use, and does it matter?

It matters more than the amaretto, honestly. You don't need anything precious here, but you want a bourbon with enough oak and proof to cut through the almond sweetness. Something in the higher-rye, higher-proof range earns its keep. Skip the wheated, mellow stuff that just disappears. The point of the whiskey is friction, so give the amaretto something to argue with.

Why does the amaretto count as the sweetener and not the spirit?

Amaretto is a liqueur, which means it's already loaded with sugar, so it's doing the sweetening job that simple syrup does in a straight sour. That's exactly why the recipe only calls for half an ounce of simple. The bourbon, dry and boozy, is the actual base spirit. Pull the amaretto out and you've got an underpowered whiskey sour, which tells you who's really running the show on the sugar side.

The Amaretto Sour: The Punchline That Earns Its Place

The Amaretto Sour spent decades as a punchline. You know the version: radioactive orange, sweet enough to strip enamel, poured from a gun behind a chain restaurant bar by somebody who'd rather be anywhere else. That drink earned every bit of its reputation. But strip away the sour mix and the neglect, and what's underneath is a genuinely great sour, all marzipan warmth and tart snap, that deserves a second look from people who think they hate it.

1.5 ozAmaretto

0.75 ozBourbon

1 ozLemon Juice

0.5 ozSimple Syrup

1Egg White

Garnish: Cherry, lemon peel

This is a shaken sour with an egg white, which means you owe it a dry shake. Combine the amaretto, bourbon, lemon, simple, and egg white in the tin with no ice and shake hard for ten or fifteen seconds. That's the part that builds the foam, emulsifying the protein into a tight, lasting cap. Then add cubed ice and shake again to chill and dilute. Double strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. The bourbon is the whole trick. Amaretto on its own is cloying and one-note, so the splash of whiskey drags in tannin, oak, and a little bite that gives the almond something to push against. The lemon does the heavy lifting on the tart side, and you'll notice the simple syrup is restrained at half an ounce, because the liqueur is already carrying most of the sugar. Garnish with a cherry and a lemon peel. Express the peel over the foam so the oils land on top.

Cocktail Codex files this one under the Daiquiri, and once you see why, you can't unsee it. The Daiquiri family is the home of the complete sour: tart citrus on one side, sweetener on the other, spirit holding the middle, and nothing else cluttering the structure. What makes it a Daiquiri rather than a Sidecar-style daisy is the absence of a secondary liqueur added for flavor on top of the balance. Here, the amaretto is doing double duty. It's the sweetener and the flavor at the same time, standing in for the simple syrup a Daiquiri would lean on, while the bourbon plays the role of the base spirit. The lemon is your lime. The egg white is texture, not structure. Build it on paper and it's the same skeleton as a Daiquiri, a Bee's Knees, a Brown Derby, or a Bywater: citrus, sugar, spirit, shaken cold. The almond is just the costume.

The drink dates to the 1970s, when amaretto was having a moment in America and bars were leaning hard into anything sweet and approachable. Disaronno did the marketing, the country did the drinking, and somewhere along the way the recipe got handed off to sour mix and lost its soul. For years the Amaretto Sour was shorthand for a drink you ordered when you didn't really want to be drinking, the liquid equivalent of a participation trophy. Then in 2012 a Portland bartender named Jeffrey Morgenthaler published a version that put bourbon and egg white back into it and dared people to take it seriously. He was right. His take went viral in the cocktail world because it proved the bones were always good, that the drink had just fallen in with a bad crowd. There's a lesson in there about how a cocktail's reputation is mostly about who's been making it and how little they cared. The same indifference that ruined the Amaretto Sour ruined a hundred other drinks. Make it with fresh lemon, real amaretto, and a spirit with some spine, and you've got something that holds its own next to any respectable sour on the list.

Open the Amaretto Sour recipe card on Speed Pour

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FAQ

Do I really need the egg white?: No, and the version without it has a name: the Amaretto Stone Sour, which usually adds a splash of orange juice and skips the foam entirely. But the egg white isn't there for show. It rounds the edges, softens the tartness, and gives you that silky cap that makes the first sip feel like more than the sum of cheap parts. If raw egg worries you, aquafaba works fine. If you're in a hurry and don't care, drink it flat. It'll still taste good.
What bourbon should I use, and does it matter?: It matters more than the amaretto, honestly. You don't need anything precious here, but you want a bourbon with enough oak and proof to cut through the almond sweetness. Something in the higher-rye, higher-proof range earns its keep. Skip the wheated, mellow stuff that just disappears. The point of the whiskey is friction, so give the amaretto something to argue with.
Why does the amaretto count as the sweetener and not the spirit?: Amaretto is a liqueur, which means it's already loaded with sugar, so it's doing the sweetening job that simple syrup does in a straight sour. That's exactly why the recipe only calls for half an ounce of simple. The bourbon, dry and boozy, is the actual base spirit. Pull the amaretto out and you've got an underpowered whiskey sour, which tells you who's really running the show on the sugar side.