• 30mL Angostura bitters (yes, you read that right)
• 30mL orgeat
• 22.5mL lemon juice
• 15mL rye
• 10mL egg white (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a shaker tin. If using egg white, dry shake (without ice) first to mix. Add ice to shaker, and shake it up real good. Serve up in a cocktail glass.

Do you find yourself with an abundance of Angostura bitters? So much that you don’t know what to do with them? Well, I’ve got the drink for you. That’s right. Mix up a Trinidad Sour or two, and you’ll be going through that Angostura stash like crazy before you know it.

While it’s usually used a mere dash or two at a time, Angostura bitters play the starring role in the Trinidad Sour, with a full 30 mL (or one ounce, if that’s your jam) called for in the recipe. In fact, I’m using the smaller version of the drink. Other versions¹including, supposedly, the original version, for what it’s worth of the recipe call for 45 mL instead!

It looks bizarre, all those bitters, all that orgeat²I’ll comment more on orgeat at a later time, how could that possibly taste good? And it does taste bizarre, but you know, in a good way. The egg white is optional, of course, but I find that it adds some really nice body to the drink as well. As is my usual advice, you should try it all the different ways and see which you like best³other variations also call for 30mL of rye instead of 15.

It seems like one of those drinks that was found in some long lost pre-prohibition bartender’s manual (it also seems like it could be the brain-child of the Angostura marketing department); maybe a smudge of ink is the cause for so much volume of the Angostura bitters. But I promise you, it’s not a typo, and it’s not even all that old (though it falls nicely in the “modern classic” category).

Created by Guiseppe Gonzalez when he was working at Clover Club in New York, the recipe for this concoction is based on the Trinidad Especial⁴also not much older, having been created a year earlier by Valentino Bolognese. It’s a flashy beverage, and sure to get plenty of attention, but alas, you’re not likely to find it on too many cocktail menus, given the expense of blowing through so much in the way of Angostura bitters in a single drink.