Drink · 4 min · 1 glass
Whiskey sour
The template every sour is built on: two spirit, one citrus, one sugar. Egg white if you want the texture, and dry shake it first.
The sheet · 1 glass · 4 min
easyWhy tonight. The template every sour is built on: two spirit, one citrus, one sugar. Egg white if you want the texture, and dry shake it first.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- bourbon
- lemon
- simple syrup
Good if you have them, fine if you do not: angostura.
Method
- 2 oz bourbon, ¾ oz lemon, ¾ oz simple syrup. Shake hard with ice until it hurts to hold the tin.
- Egg white if you want the texture: dry shake first with no ice to build the foam, then again with ice. It is never assumed and it adds no flavor.
- Strain over a big cube or up. Angostura dashed on the foam if there is one.
- If it tastes thin, add syrup rather than whiskey. A sour that is out of balance is nearly always short of sweet, not short of spirit.
An educational pour, not a reprint of a licensed spec. No allergen or alcohol-safety claim.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- bourbon
- Corn-sweet and vanilla-heavy from new oak, so it takes bitterness and citrus without being flattened.
- lemon
- Acid you add at the end, not the start.
- simple syrup
- Sugar already dissolved, which is the only form of sugar that works in a cold drink.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares bourbon, lemon, simple syrup
Berry bourbon smash
A smash with thawed berries. Don't puree into jam. Mint clapped.
Shares bourbon, lemon, simple syrup
Bourbon smash with syrup
Mint smash. Syrup instead of dry sugar so it dissolves cold.
Shares bourbon, lemon, simple syrup
New York sour
A whiskey sour with a red wine float. The wine is a lid, not a pour.
Shares lemon, simple syrup
Amaretto sour
Amaretto, lemon and egg white. Amaretto is very sweet on its own, so this needs more lemon than a standard sour.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.