whiskey sour recipe with lemon juice concentrate

To my mind the bitters disturb the individual fine notes in the taste of the whiskeys. To be honest, I’ve never been to a bar yet, where they would serve me a whisky sour with bitters in it and I find it correct, because adding bitters changes the perception of this drink. Everyone I knew from our bartenders-team did the whisky sour without Angostura or any other kind of bitters until one new guy joined our team and was insisting on making whisky sour with Angostura because “it’s the right way” (in truth, it’s just how he learned it at his bartender courses). We didn’t use eggs or egg-whites for the preparation of drinks in the club, so I am talking about the simple version of this cocktail.

Probably because it’s not too mild in its taste and has some distinct notes to it. We didn’t have a large selection of whiskeys, maybe 5 or 6 brands, and somehow Jack Daniels Old No7 was the one I preferred the most for making whisky sours. I used to work as a bartender in a nightclub and whiskey sour was my all time favorite drink to enjoy after (or sometimes during )) the shift. Hello Doug, have just found your article while I was searching the web for an answer on “why do some people put bitters into whiskey sour”. “The Whiskey Sour” at : All text and photos © 2011 Douglas M. (And by the way: if you enjoy the whiskey sour, don’t forget to try the Ward 8.) Lemons and people change with the seasons you may find yourself adjusting the blend every time you make this drink. There are a couple of exceptions, like the Pisco Sour mentioned above, but the Whiskey Sour is never bittered.Īs I constantly remind myself, cocktail recipes are guidelines, not laws, and the Whiskey Sour is a fine example of why that is.

It’s interesting that sours as a class are unbittered. If you prefer lighter-flavored or lower-proof whiskies, you may want to cut the lemon and sugar back a little-maybe to about ¾ oz for the lemon-so the drink can maintain its whiskey identity. My preference is for a middle of the road Bourbon or rye a higher-proof rye like Wild Turkey 101 or Rittenhouse 100 stands up to this drink nicely, and can assert its flavor against the lemon. American and Canadian whiskies are traditional, but Scotch and Irish work, too. Just sayin’…Īnd just as you don’t want to bury the lemon, you don’t want to bury the whiskey, either. You can put these away pretty fast when the egg white is in play. Just a little will do for the Whiskey Sour.) (That foam is a defining characteristic of the Pisco Sour, and is used to the extreme in the Ramos Fizz and the Oliveto.

And it puts a nice little frothy foam on the top of the drink. The egg white softens and blends the lemon flavor, and smooths the drink’s texture on the tongue-”silky” is the word you’ll often encounter. (For that matter, in most taverns you won’t get real lemon juice in your drink either don’t get me started on that…) The drink is still quite worthwhile without the egg white, and much simpler to make, of course, but I recommend at least giving it a try. The practice of adding egg to sours has been around nearly as long as the sour itself, but you will rarely encounter it anymore, unless you make the drink yourself. The egg is an intriguing addition to the Whiskey Sour. Shake all ingredients without ice (“dry shake”) to emulsify and foam up the egg white, then add ice and shake again until well chilled. The whiskey sour is most commonly served in a rocks glass over ice, but can also be served in a chilled cocktail stem with a twist or cherry garnish. Gary Regan notes in The Joy of Mixology (2003) that by 1895 George Kappeler was making sours with sugar syrup instead of soda, and that has been the model ever since. My reprint of Jerry Thomas’s 1887 Bartenders Guide indicates that Professor Thomas dissolved his sugar in Seltzer water, but that little foray into fizzy sours doesn’t seem to have caught on. A simplified derivative of punch, it was probably pretty well known by the time it got into print. You don’t want to bury the lemon altogether-the drink is a sour, after all.ĭavid Wondrich’s research for Imbibe! (2007) found that the oldest known sour recipe is from a Toronto hotel’s 1856 drink list. The idea of the drink is to use just enough lemon to make a counterpoint to the whiskey, and just enough sugar to take the edge off the lemon.

Like the Old Fashioned, it provides a welcome break from the flavor complexities of more sophisticated cocktails. Somewhere in between is a simple, tasty refresher. The Whiskey Sour is all about flavor balance. The drink is very simple-just a spirit, some fresh lemon juice, sugar and water. Too much lemon is just plain harsh.

Whiskey sour recipe with lemon juice concentrate