Cocktail · Medium strength
Paper Plane
Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemon — equal parts, modern legend.
How to order it: Sam Ross again, 2008. Shaken, coupe. The gateway drug to amaro.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- ¾ oz bourbon
- ¾ oz Aperol
- ¾ oz Amaro Nonino
- ¾ oz lemon juice
- Shake; coupe
The story
The Paper Plane is modern canon, invented in 2008 by Sam Ross of New York's Milk & Honey for the opening menu of The Violet Hour in Chicago. He named it after M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," then inescapable on every radio, and built it on the equal-parts template the Last Word had recently made fashionable: bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemon. An early version used Campari before Ross swapped in Aperol. Within a decade it was on menus from Melbourne to Madrid, an unofficial handshake among bartenders. It endures because equal parts should not work this well, and the fact that they do feels like a magic trick.
Classic variation
The Paper Plane is a riff on a classic. Meet the original:
Adjacent pours