Paper Plane Cocktail

The Paper Plane has become one of the true modern classics, and it earned that status fast. Created in 2007 by Sam Ross, co-owner of New York’s famed bar Attaboy, it’s named after M.I.A.’s song “Paper Planes,” which was in heavy rotation around the time Ross put the drink together. It belongs to a small club of cocktails invented in the last twenty years that bartenders now treat with the same reverence as pre-Prohibition classics, and once you taste it, it’s easy to see why.

What makes the Paper Plane work is its structure. It’s built on equal parts of four ingredients, bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and fresh lemon juice, which means it hits sweet, bitter, and sour in near-perfect balance without leaning too hard on any one note. Aperol brings its familiar bright orange bitterness, Amaro Nonino adds a deeper, more herbal complexity that keeps the drink from feeling one-dimensional, and the lemon juice cuts through both to keep things lively rather than heavy. Bourbon holds it all together as the backbone, giving the drink enough weight to still feel like a proper spirit-forward cocktail rather than a bittersweet spritz.

Because everything is equal parts, it’s also one of the easiest modern cocktails to memorize. There’s no ratio to look up, no odd fraction of an ounce to measure out, just even pours of all four ingredients shaken hard and double strained into a chilled glass. That simplicity is part of why it has spread so far beyond Attaboy and shown up on cocktail menus everywhere, it’s genuinely easy to execute well, and just as easy to make at home.

Glass: Coupe or Nick & Nora glass  |  Strength: Medium  |  Serves: 1  |  Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bartender’s tip: Amaro Nonino is the one ingredient worth not substituting. Other amaros will change the flavor significantly since Nonino is on the lighter, more approachable end of the amaro spectrum, swapping in something heavier or more bitter can throw the whole balance off.