cocktail review no. 50 - Boston Sidecar

Having delineated the Sidecar, it behooves me to give honorable mention to one of its more popular variants, the Boston Sidecar.

• 1 ounce light rum
• ½ brandy
• ½ Cointreau or triple sec
• ½ lemon juice

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine all the ingredients. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

This is delicious. Normally it's tough to find a drink variant (a play on the original, often adding or subtracting an ingredient) that's not merely "good" or "interesting" but is actually an improvement upon the original.

In Postie's book, the only "developments upon the original" which I've ever truly liked are (a) the dirty martini, (b) the Colorado bulldog, and (c) the Boston sidecar.

I explained the taste of a regular ol' Sidecar to you in the previous review: sweet with a sourish kick at the end, heightened by the warmth of the brandy. Picture that in your mind, and add another wallop on top of it: a powerful overtone of rum. This changes the game completely. Whereas before the lemon juice and triple sec were the dominant players of the game, here they have been relegated to second fiddle, only not in the exclusive and humiliating way in which most things are relegated to second fiddle. They still harmonize, still play their part, still provide a vital backdrop to the rum's lead role. And the brandy isn't overwhelmed either: it exchanges heating duties for complementing the rum, and does a good job of it.

The cumulative effect of all this is that you get a slightly sweeter, cooler drink, which lends itself less to the after-dinner scene and more towards the back porch on a summer evening. And you get extra booze. What's not to like?