Drink · 4 min · 1 coupe
Paper Plane
Equal parts bourbon, amaro, Aperol and lemon. A modern classic that is bitter, sour and sweet in exactly equal measure.
The sheet · 1 coupe · 4 min
mediumWhy tonight. Equal parts bourbon, amaro, Aperol and lemon. A modern classic that is bitter, sour and sweet in exactly equal measure.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- bourbon
- amaro
- aperol
- lemon
Method
- Equal parts: ¾ oz each bourbon, Aperol, amaro and lemon. Shake hard, strain up.
- Amaro choice decides the drink — Nonino is the original and the softest; anything more bitter will need a touch more Aperol behind it.
- No garnish. This one does not need help.
- It is a modern classic that works because two of the four parts are bitter and two are not; change the ratio and it collapses in one direction or the other.
An educational pour, not a reprint of a licensed spec. No allergen or alcohol-safety claim.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- bourbon
- Corn-sweet and vanilla-heavy from new oak, so it takes bitterness and citrus without being flattened.
- amaro
- Bitter herbal liqueur, and every bottle is its own recipe.
- aperol
- Bitter but gently, and sweeter and lower-proof than Campari, so it makes an afternoon drink rather than an evening one.
- lemon
- Acid you add at the end, not the start.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares amaro, lemon
Gin and amaro
Gin and amaro with a squeeze of lemon. Two bottles, one glass, and a genuinely good drink in about thirty seconds.
Shares aperol, lemon
Aperol mezcal sour
Aperol's bitterness against smoke, with lemon holding them together. Egg white if you want it soft.
Shares aperol, lemon
Aperol sour
Aperol carries its own bitterness, so this needs less sugar than a standard sour. Egg white makes it look like sunset.
Shares bourbon, lemon
Final Word
A Last Word built on bourbon instead of gin, which makes it rounder and slightly sweeter.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.