What's A Paper Airplane?

man shares a day in the job (l) bartender doing drink orders (c) man shares customer requests that annoy him (r)

Via iStockphoto / @_simoneanthony TikTok

Eight thousand hours—that’s how much time one bartender has behind the brass. Surely qualifies him as an expert in his game. Still, every now and again a drink comes across his bar, and he’s forced to break out his origami skills.

Ant Man (@simoneanthony), a New York-to-Arizona transplant, says there are some things that always happen to bartenders. “Tell me this s—- doesn’t happen to you once in a while,” he says in a TikTok video that’s gotten over 312,400 views.

Paper, But Make It Aerodynamic

“Every once in a while I’ll be working the service well, and I’m going through the tickets. They’re getting spit out of the machine, and I’m seeing vodka Red Bull. I’m seeing espresso martini; I’m seeing extra dirty martini. I’m seeing Moscow Mule. And I’m like ‘OK, cool,'” says Ant Man.

Quick pause.

“Then I’ll see a ticket come out, and I’m like, ‘What the f—- is this? What did this server… I’m about to go and scream at the server,” he recounts.

“What did this person just ring in? I swear to God, the other day I had someone ring in a Paper Airplane. What the f—-is a Paper Airplane?” he asks.

Next, he confronted the server, saying that they rang the ticket in wrong. But, no. They’re correct, and he’s left looking up the ingredients.

“People just be makin’ s— up nowadays,” he grumbles.

The Driest Drink Of All?

Ant Man is right: People are just making things up. In the case of a Paper Airplane, it was dreamed up in 2008 by bartender Sam Ross for the opening of the Chicago bar, The Violet Hour. He named it for M.I.A.’s hit, “Paper Planes,” which was everywhere the summer the drink was created.

So it’s by no means brand new, and commenters are quick to call him out over it: “Paper plane. Drink has been around for 25 years now.. made up from a New York bartender.. like definitely a drink you should know as a fellow bartender,” said @donnespitzerjr.

However, there are calls for nuance in the comments section, which has gotten feisty quickly. “Guys I think we’re forgetting that dive bar/fast casual bartending do not get the same drink orders as fine dining. As someone who works at both-NO ONE orders drinks like paper planes at my fast cas bar. My fine dining job on the other hand, definitely have,” noted @swagmaster30055.

Meanwhile, @coopergolden1 has his eyes on the bigger picture, writing, “And thanks to you. A thousand bartenders are going to have to learn how to make a paper airplane this weekend. Lol.”

What Is In A Paper Airplane?

A Paper Airplane (or Paper Plane) is composed of only four ingredients, each in equal parts (3/4 ounce for the original recipe, one full ounce for something boozier):

Bourbon
Aperol
Amaro Nonino
Fresh lemon juice.

The taste is described as a fancy “whiskey sour,” meaning it goes down more easily and tastes “lighter” than the sour. This is largely because “the fruitiness and the sweetness from the amari make it go down easy.” It’s the kind of drink the Seattle Times described as “perfect for the fall, but drinkable in summer.”

Also, back in 2017, it was the “it” drink of Seattle because it was seen as a riff on a Prohibition-era drink called The Last Word. However, The Last Word is made with gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino cherry juice, and lime juice. The Paper Airplane is a little more robust.

Originating in Detroit about 1930, The Last Word popped up in Seattle when bartender Murray Stenson unearthed it circa 2005. But both drinks are a part of that cocktail-resurgence that was so popular and elegant in the early to mid aughts.

So, the next time you lift a Paper Airplane, take a moment to toast the backroom bartenders of the Prohibition era who were just trying to make bootleg liquor drinkable. And perhaps even to Ant Man, himself, for reintroducing this drink to the group chat.