Fancy Brandy Sour

New and Improved Bartenders' Manual by Harry Johnson (1900, p.233) — Fancy

1. Dissolve the sugar and lemon juice with a squirt of syphon selters in a large bar glass.
2. Fill the glass with ice and add the brandy.
3. Stir up well.
4. Place fruit into a fancy sour glass, strain the ingredients into it, and serve.

Garnish: Seasonal fruit

Ice: Ice

Nose

Fruit garnish makes the sour seem more perfumed and hospitable than the plain branch.

Palate

This is still a simple brandy sour structurally, but Johnson's fancy service turns it toward the dressed late-nineteenth-century aesthetic rather than bare acid-and-spirit minimalism.

Finish

The finish is cool, citrusy, and softly wine-spirituous.

Summary

A fruit-dressed sour showing how even simple templates could be elevated through service style.

The 'fancy' designation is important because it preserves the visual hierarchy inside the sour family rather than implying all sours were presented alike.

The fruit belongs in the receiving glass, not just as an afterthought. The staging is part of the drink's identity.

Daly's Bartenders' Encyclopedia by Tim Daly (1903, p.92)

1. Dissolve the sugar in a little seltzer water and add the lemon juice, brandy, and fine ice.
2. Spoon well, strain into a sour glass, put in fruit, top off with claret, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit.

Ice: Fine ice

This is a useful reminder that Daly still treats claret-topped dressed variants as live sour practice.

The claret top is the whole point of the fancy designation here.