Classic cocktail · Guided recipe
Millionaire
Start makingGrand Marnier does the heavy lifting: orange and cognac stacked on bourbon, with lemon keeping it from going syrupy. Egg white makes it silk. The grenadine is barely there at 8 ml, in for color and a whisper of fruit.
In the glassBourbon · Grand Marnier · Fresh lemon juice · Grenadine · Egg white
See exact amounts
What goes in
Ingredients
Set up before you pour
Use a coupe glass.
The stem keeps your hand away from a cold drink, while the rounded bowl makes an up serve easy to sip.
- Standard size
- 200 ml6¾ oz
- Ice & serve
- Chill it first; serve without ice.
- If you don’t own one
- Use a small martini glass or stemmed dessert glass.
- cocktail shaker
- strainer (or a small sieve)
- jigger or measuring spoon
- Bourbon45 ml
- Grand Marnier22 ml
- Fresh lemon juice15 ml
- Grenadine8 ml
- Egg white1 egg white
From bottle to glass
Method
- 01
Measure into the shaker Pour 45 ml bourbon into your shaker
Bourbon
- 02
Measure into the shaker Add 22 ml grand marnier
Grand Marnier
- 03
Measure into the shaker Add 15 ml fresh lemon juice
Fresh lemon juice
- 04
Measure into the shaker Add 8 ml grenadine
Grenadine
- 05
Measure into the shaker Add 1 egg white
Egg white
- 06
Ice the shaker Fill the shaker with ice
- 07
Seal and shake Seal and shake hard
- 08
Strain cleanly Strain into a chilled glass — no ice
- 09
Finish the drink Finish it — add a cocktail cherry
Know your drink
About the Millionaire
Four drinks, one name
Bar books have handed the Millionaire name around for a century without agreeing on anything. Craddock's Savoy prints a numbered set. Other manuals give a rye-and-curacao build with egg white, and a few drop the egg entirely. Numbering them was an admission that the name had gotten away from everyone. Take any recipe you're given on its own terms and don't expect two bars to match.
Egg white here isn't decoration. Bourbon, orange liqueur and grenadine make a dense, slightly sticky mixture, and the foam is what keeps it from feeling heavy on the tongue. Shake it without ice first for fifteen seconds, then again with ice, and strain through a fine mesh so the stringy bit of the white never reaches the glass.
Common questions
Millionaire FAQ
Which Millionaire is this one?
At least four drinks carry the name in old bar books and they share almost nothing. The Savoy's Millionaire No. 1 is Jamaican rum with sloe gin and apricot brandy. This is the American whiskey version, and it's the one you're most likely to be handed today.
Can I pour Cointreau instead of Grand Marnier?
You can, and the drink gets leaner. Grand Marnier is cognac-based, sweeter and heavier, which is why 22 ml of it can carry a 45 ml pour of bourbon. Cointreau is neutral-based and drier, so add 5 ml of syrup or the lemon runs away with everything.
The sugar count looks high. Should I cut something?
Count it up: roughly 30 ml of sugar-bearing liquid against 15 ml of lemon, so yes, it lands on the sweet side by design. Take the lemon to 22 ml before touching the Grand Marnier, since the liqueur is carrying the orange as well as the sugar and cutting it hollows the drink out.
Should this come out pink?
No, and if yours is you've overpoured. Bourbon and Grand Marnier set the color, so the glass should land somewhere between amber and dull rose under a pale head. Eight milliliters of grenadine warms that; it doesn't dye it. Anything properly pink has twice the syrup it wants.
What ingredients are in a Millionaire?
A classic Millionaire calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Bourbon, 22 ml (0.75 oz) Grand Marnier, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Fresh lemon juice, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Grenadine, 1 egg white Egg white. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.
How strong is a Millionaire?
A standard Millionaire is roughly 32% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.
Is a Millionaire shaken or stirred?
A Millionaire is shaken — the rule of thumb is to shake anything with citrus juice. About 13 seconds with plenty of ice chills and dilutes it correctly.
Sharpen the technique
Skills used in this recipe
How to shake a cocktail properly
The grip, timing, ice and visual cues that make shaken drinks colder and brighter.
Read the guide
Fresh citrus for cocktails: juice, wedges and balance
Get brighter lime, lemon and grapefruit flavor with better prep and storage.
Read the guideWhere to go next
If you like the Millionaire, try these.
Amaretto Sour
Done right — with a shot of bourbon and egg white for backbone — the Amaretto Sour is nutty, tart and grown-up, not the syrupy version you remember.
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Boston Sour
A whiskey sour with egg white shaken in — the same sharp balance under a silky, foamy crown.
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Whiskey Daisy
Bourbon's corn sweetness meets lemon head-on here, with grenadine and a little orange liqueur filling the gap between them. Daisies were a bar standard in the 1870s, half a century before anyone thought to call the tequila one a Margarita.
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