Inside the Prohibition-Era Elegance of the Sidecar

The Sidecar, a combination of Cognac, triple sec, and lemon juice, might just be the quintessential Prohibition-era cocktail. During the 1920s, the Sidecar became one of the most popular cocktails globally and thrived in Europe as a symbol of elegance and sophistication, while Americans sipped them in secret.

The Sidecar’s origin can be traced to the Prohibition era, where its recipe appeared in two separate cocktail books released in 1922: Cocktails: How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeire, and Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails by HarryMcElhone.

In The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, the Sidecar’s place of birth is speculated to have been somewhere in Southern France. From there, it quickly became popular across bars in France and England and became a staple in American speakeasies. During the cocktail revival in the early 2000s, the Sidecar was resurrected and quickly became recognized as the preeminent Cognac-based drink in the pantheon of classic cocktails.

Why the Sidecar works

The Sidecar is based on a classic cocktail formula called the Daisy, where the combination of distilled spirit and citrus juice is sweetened with a liqueur and vigorously shaken. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same blueprint used to make the Margarita. The Daisy formula is so foundational and adaptable that it’s the basis of scores of cocktails, including the gin-based Pegu Club, the Hemingway Daiquiri, and the Cosmopolitan.

In the case of the Sidecar, Cognac, orange liqueur, and lemon juice are shaken to create a cocktail with a delicate balance. The sweet, oak-forward profile of the Cognac blends perfectly with fresh lemon juice and the slightly dry sweetness of the Cointreau. This version is garnished with an orange twist to accentuate the cocktail’s citrus-forward character, but if a slightly sweeter profile is desired, the Sidecar can also be garnished with a sugar rim.