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Cable Car Cocktail

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The Cable Car Cocktail is a super simple drink built with orange curacao, spiced rum, lime juice, and sugar syrup!

Cable Car Cocktail Info

Tony Abou-Ganim, also known as The Modern Mixologist, is a bartending legend that co-founded the Starlight Room. He created the Cable Car cocktail to pay tribute to San Francisco's cable cars! The cable cars of San Francisco are an icon of a past era. They still climb the hills of San Francisco and carry commuters and tourists up and down busy streets.

This rum sour is sweet, tart, and lightly spiced, regardless of whether you are familiar with its name. The Cable Car cocktail is a modified Sidecar. It substitutes brandy with spiced rum, back then, spiced rum was very uncommon.

Abou-Ganim's original cocktails helped to establish San Francisco as a cocktail destination in an era that was defined by Cosmopolitan and other similar drinks.

Captain Morgan was probably the most widely available spiced rum label at the time of Cable Car's inception. The Captain is probably still the most well-known of the category, but today there are plenty of other options. A more luxurious approach is to maybe use something like a Boukman Botanical Rhum.

Similar to a Sidecar or Brandy Crusta, the Cable Car includes an orange liqueur in addition to simple syrup for sweetness--specifically, orange curacao. using Bol's or something similar can make the drink heavy, so it's better to use a dry curacao. Abou-Ganim uses Marie Brizard Orange Curacao in the original recipe. Grand Marnier or maybe Cointreau would also work great.

Another aspect that made the Cable Car a classic is the way it was presented. Abou-Ganim uses a mixture of cinnamon and sugar to give the drink a punchier sweetness and a present hint of spice.

Cable Car

A cocktail created by the legend, Tony Abou-Ganim!

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5 from 2 votes
Course: Cocktail, Drink
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Mix Time: 1 minute
Servings: 1 Serving(s)

Ingredients

  • 45 ml Spiced Rum
  • 25 ml Orange Curacao
  • 30 ml Lemon Juice
  • 15 ml Sugar Syrup

Instructions

  • Start with rimming your cocktail glass with cinnamon and sugar!
  • Put your glass to the side and add ice to your shaker.
  • Add all the ingredients.
  • Shake cold!
  • Strain into your rimmed cocktail glass.
  • Serve!
Nutrition
Calories: 243kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 9mg | Potassium: 41mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg
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