Missing in Action Cocktail with Bourbon and Aperol

Author Notes

This cocktail is based on another cocktail called the Paper Plane, which I first learned about from the excellent podcast Let's Drink About It (http://www.letsdrinkabout.it/ep-53/). (Apparently the drink was invented by bartender Sam Ross of NYC's Little Branch.) The original calls equal parts bourbon, Amaro Nonino, Campari, and lemon juice. The drink sounded so good to me when I heard the podcast on the way to work that I had to make one when I got home. Unfortunately, of the four ingredients, all I had was the bourbon. So I did the best approximation I could, using a different amaro, Aperol instead of Campari, and lemons instead of limes. I tweaked the ratios a bit to make up for the lower acidity of limes. The result was chuggably delicious. The name is a nod to the MIA song that inspired the original drink's name, and the fact that I was missing all of its ingredients. —Michael Hoffman