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Trinidad Sour

Trinidad Sour

Name: Trinidad Sour
Prep time: 0
Cook time: 0
Total time: 0
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Cocktails
Ingredients: 45 ml Angostura Bitters; 30 ml Orgeat Syrup; 22.5 ml Fresh Lemon Juice; 15 ml Rye Whisky

By: Aarushi Agrawal

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You know chefs use salt and pepper to season a dish? That’s the way bartenders use bitters on top to bring out new dimensions in the drink. But what happens when the component that’s supposed to be treated like a seasoning is used as the base of a cocktail? We have the Trinidad Sour.

The cocktail was invented by former New York bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez while he worked at the Clover Club in 2009. The base of the drink is Angostura Bitters, with lemon juice, syrup and rye whiskey all balancing out the bitterness. Gonzalez was inspired by the Italian bartender Valentino Bolognese, who won a competition for creating Trinidad Especial, which had lime instead of lemon and pisco in place of rye. Gonzalez’s drink was delicious, full, balanced and unique. But it took a while to catch on.

trinidad sour recipe

He constantly sought out feedback and kept trying to find ways of improving it. Julie Reiner, owner of Clover Club and co-founder of Social Hour, says, “Giuseppe Gonzalez was always a rule breaker,” and adds: “Guiseppe tasted me on the drink and I was stunned that he used Angostura as the base. It was something I had never seen before, and it was delicious. I told Giu that it was very creative, and that I didn’t expect it to work, but it did.”

However, the drink only really took off when it started being served at the bar Drink in Boston, co-founded by bartender John Gertsen. Drink has a menu-less concept, and the Trinidad Sour was often served to guests looking for something adventurous. It became so popular that eventually, Gonzalez had a guest walk into Clover Club and request the drink. “I smiled and looked at the guest because, to their surprise, I knew how to make it, but they sent it back because it wasn’t the way John made it,” recalls Gonzelez.

trinidad sour at home

Not just Gertsen, but Gonzalez was surrounded by some of the best bartenders in the world. Having his drink tasted and critiqued by experts of that calibre meant the drink came with strong recommendations. Additionally, the Trinidad Sour, like any good modern classic, is made with ingredients that are easy to source. One would easily find these ingredients at any bar anywhere in the world. This made it easy for bartenders to replicate the drink and it continued to spread.

Another reason for its popularity, as Gonzelez himself attests, is the very structure of the drink: “A reason it’s so popular is because nobody can imagine what it tastes like. It doesn’t follow a traditional cocktail formula, which is part of the appeal.” and once you’ve tasted a drink with such a high concentration of bitters in it, you aren't going to forget it anytime soon.