- 2 oz bourbon
- ¾ oz lemon juice
- ½ oz simple syrup
Classic cocktail
Whiskey Sour
Bourbon · Lemon · Sugar
Whiskey, lemon and sugar, shaken. The oldest sour in print, and the one every other sour is measured against.
Spirit, citrus, sugar.Sailors had been mixing spirits with citrus and sugar for two hundred years before anyone wrote the recipe down; the lime ration kept scurvy off and the sugar made the ration drinkable. The sour is that habit brought ashore and made with whiskey.
In print since 1862.Jerry Thomas, the first bartender to publish a book of recipes, put the Whiskey Sour in his 1862 guide. His version is the one still made: whiskey, lemon, sugar, shaken with ice and strained. The egg white came later, and a sour made with it is sometimes called a Boston Sour.
Today. It is the easiest classic to get right and the easiest to ruin with a bottled mix. Fresh lemon, a bourbon with some sweetness of its own, and a hard shake are the whole technique.
- Bourbon1792 12 YEARS · $69.992 oz
- Lemon juice, freshFrom your kitchen¾ oz
- Simple syrupFrom your kitchen½ oz
- Egg white, optional, for the foamFrom your kitchen½
- Lemon wheel or a cherryFrom your kitchen1
Squeeze ¾ oz of lemon juice. Bottled juice is the difference between a sour and a bad one.
Add 2 oz bourbon, the lemon, ½ oz syrup and, if you want foam, half an egg white to a shaker.
Shake without ice for 10 seconds if you used egg white, then add ice and shake hard for 15 more.
Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass, or into a coupe, and garnish with a lemon wheel.
Never sour mix. Lemons cost less than the bottle and taste like lemons.
Same glass, one bottle swapped
Each a drink of its own, each bottle on the shelf tonightAlso on the wall
All 7- 1 oz gin
- 1 oz Campari
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- 2 oz vodka
- 1 oz espresso
- ½ oz coffee liqueur
- 2 oz orange juice
- Sparkling wine to top
- 2 oz bourbon
- 2 dashes bitters
- Sugar cube, orange peel
- 2 oz tequila
- 1 oz lime juice
- ¾ oz orange liqueur
- 2 oz white rum
- 1 oz lime juice
- Mint, soda, sugar