Brandy Sour Recipe (Cyprus's National Cocktail, and the Classic Sour)

The brandy sour has a good story behind it. The version told in Cyprus is that a barman at the Forest Park Hotel in Platres, a hill resort in the Troodos mountains, created it for the young King Farouk of Egypt, who stayed there often. The king wanted something that could pass for iced tea, and brandy mixed pale and long with lemon squash and soda did the job. Even Wikipedia points out the story is shaky, since Farouk is said not to have drunk alcohol, but the drink stuck around long after anyone stopped asking.

It remains the drink most associated with Cyprus today, served everywhere from beach bars to smart hotel terraces, and it is easy to make well at home provided you use Cypriot brandy, which has a distinct character from French or Spanish brandies and is really what the drink is built around.

One thing confuses people searching for a brandy sour recipe. In the US and most cocktail books, a brandy sour is a short, shaken drink of brandy, fresh lemon juice and sugar, the older cousin of the whiskey sour. The Cypriot brandy sour is a long, fizzy drink built in the glass. Both recipes are below.

Key preparation steps

1. Fill a tall glass generously with ice.
2. Add Cypriot brandy, lemon squash and 2 to 3 dashes of Angostura bitters.
3. Top with soda water and stir gently.
4. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

Where the Cyprus brandy sour comes from

Platres sits about 3,900 feet (1,200 m) up in the Troodos mountains, roughly 16 miles northwest of Limassol, and it has been the main hill resort of Cyprus since British rule began in 1878. The Forest Park Hotel there had famous guests, among them King Farouk of Egypt and Daphne du Maurier, who wrote most of Rebecca in the hotel. The brandy sour is said to have been mixed there for the king in the late 1930s, though accounts of the date vary.

Whatever the truth of the king's part in it, the timing fits the brandy. According to Wikipedia's account, the Haggipavlu family made the first blended brandy on Cyprus in the early 1930s, and that softer, lighter style is what the drink was built on.

Why Cypriot brandy specifically

The local style is generally softer and slightly sweeter than French brandy, with a caramel note at the finish, which is exactly what makes the proportions in this drink work. A sharper, drier brandy will throw the balance off. KEO and Haggipavlu are the two names you will see most. Outside Cyprus, look for them in Greek and Cypriot import shops or online.

If you cannot find Cypriot brandy, a smooth Spanish brandy is the closest reasonable stand-in, though the result will taste noticeably different from the drink as it is actually made across the island.

Lemon squash, not fresh lemon juice

This is the detail most home versions get wrong. The traditional brandy sour uses a sweetened lemon squash or cordial, not fresh lemon juice, which gives a rounder, less sharply acidic sourness than juice alone would. In Cyprus the squash is made from the island's own bitter lemons.

Lemon squash is the kind of concentrate you dilute with water, sold in British and Cypriot shops. In the US it is harder to find, so look in Greek, Middle Eastern or British import stores, or online. If you only have fresh lemon juice, mix it with simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) to approximate the same balance, though it will not be quite identical.

Getting the proportions right

A generous measure of brandy, a measure of lemon squash, two or three dashes of Angostura bitters for color and a faint spice note, and enough soda water to lengthen it into a proper long drink, poured over plenty of ice. It should be pale amber, long and easy to drink rather than strong and short.

Stir gently rather than shaking, since the point is a clean, lightly fizzy long drink rather than something aerated and cloudy. Some bars in Cyprus top it with lemonade instead of soda for a sweeter drink, and some use a local bitters called Cock Drops in place of Angostura.

The classic brandy sour (shaken)

The classic brandy sour is far older than the Cypriot one. Jerry Thomas included a Brandy Sour in his 1862 Bar-Tender's Guide, and it is built the same way as a whiskey sour: brandy, fresh lemon juice and sugar, shaken hard with ice and strained.

To make it, shake 2 oz (60 ml) brandy, 3/4 oz (22 ml) fresh lemon juice and 3/4 oz (22 ml) simple syrup with ice for 10 to 15 seconds and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. For the frothy version, add an egg white and shake without ice first, then shake again with ice. A few drops of bitters on the foam finish it.

What to eat with a brandy sour

In Cyprus a brandy sour usually comes with something salty from the meze table. Grilled halloumi, sheftalia and koupes are the classic partners, along with olives and nuts. You will find more ideas in our Cypriot recipes and in the guide to brandy in Greek and Cypriot cooking.

What matters in this dish