Celery Sour

The Complete Buffet Manual or How to Mix Fancy Drinks by J. E. Sheridan (1901, p.43)

1. Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full of fine ice and add the ingredients.
2. Stir well, strain into a claret glass with fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit.

Ice: Fine ice

This is a useful checkpoint because it keeps the celery-bitters branch visible inside the sour family rather than treating it as a novelty.

Sheridan uses a stirred claret-glass service here rather than a shaken sour-glass format.

The Complete Buffet Guide by V. B. Lewis (1903, p.45) — V. B. Lewis 1903

1. Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full with fine ice.
2. Add the pineapple syrup, lemon juice, and celery bitters.
3. Stir well, strain into a claret glass with fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit

Nose

Celery bitters give the drink a fresh vegetal aromatic edge unusual in the period sour family.

Palate

This is a striking example of savoury or vegetal bitters being used to reshape the sour template without abandoning it.

Finish

The finish is crisp, vegetal, and citric.

Summary

A celery-bitters sour from one of the family’s more unusual savoury branches.

The Ideal Bartender by Tom Bullock (1917, p.28) — Bullock 1917

1. Fill a large bar glass full of shaved ice.
2. Stir, strain into a fancy wineglass, dress with fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit

Ice: Shaved ice

This matters because Bullock preserves the celery-bitters fashion inside the sour family rather than only in aperitif cocktails.

The dressed fruit service shows the sour as a presentation drink, not just a stripped citrus-bitter mix.