In the past year I’ve gotten into cocktails and learnt a lot, in a big part thanks to your channel. I remember coming across Trinidad Sour, reading the recipe and getting very excited about it. However, after I first made it, I was disappointed a bit as the cocktail did not seem balanced to me. A few months later I remembered that and decided to try and improve the recipe of Trinidad Sour. I decreased the amount of Angostura bitters and added some Orange bitters instead. It made the cocktail less aggressive and added a nice citrus note to it. Then I replaced whiskey with cognac (mostly because I ran out of rye whiskey and it isn’t that easy to get where I am right now; but also I think cognac did work very well there). Lastly, I decided to serve the drink on the rocks to add some more dilution and let one enjoy their cocktail for longer if they still find it too bitter to drink quickly.
West India Sour
Ingredients
- 1 oz Angostura bitters
- 1 oz Cognac
- 1 oz Orgeat
- 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
- 1/2 oz Orange bitters I used Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a shaker
- Shake very well with ice
- Double strain into a rocks glass over a big rock of ice
- Garnish with an orange peel (spray on top) and a piece of Angostura label if feeling fancy
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This cocktail definitely succeeds in being much more balanced than the Trinidad sour, and surprisingly the cognac isn’t lost to the strong pour of bitters like you’d expect it to. It’s definitely not the main flavor note, but it’s base earthiness serves to enhance the flavor of the bitters.