Sour · Anytime · Summer

Whiskey Sour

Bourbon, lemon and sugar, with egg white if you want the silk. Tart, balanced, and the sour everyone starts with.

Base: Whiskey
Glass: Coupe glass
Method: Shake
Strength: 18% ABV

Ingredients

45 mlBourbon Whiskey1 swap
Rye whiskeymedium
Spicier, less sweet
25 mlFresh Lemon Juice1 swap
Fresh lime juicemedium
A touch sharper
20 mlSugar Syrup
few dropsEgg White optional

How to make

Technique

Shake · 10–15s

Shaking chills the drink fast while adding dilution and a light texture.

Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Shake well.
Strain into cobbler glass.
If served “On the rocks”, strain ingredients
into old fashioned glass filled with ice.

Serve

Glass

Coupe glassAlso fine: Martini glass, Nick & Nora glass

Garnish

Garnish with half orange slice and maraschino cherry, optionally use orange zest.Spear the slice and the cherry together so they rest on the rim.

optional

Taste & nutrition

18%ABV

175kcal

1.59Drinks

StrengthMedium

Sweet to dryDry

Estimated from ingredient amounts and assumed ABVs — not a lab measurement.

Good to know

Using egg white? Shake harder and longer to build the foam.
Dry-shake without ice first to build the foam, then shake again with ice.
Use freshly squeezed juice — bottled tastes flat.

History

Year1860s

PlaceUSA

Created byPublished by Jerry Thomas (1862)

The Whiskey Sour — whiskey, lemon and sugar, sometimes with egg white — is a template drink recorded in Jerry Thomas's 1862 bar guide. It defines the entire "sour" family that so many cocktails belong to. Tart, balanced and adaptable, it works with bourbon or rye. An egg-white version adds a silky foam on top.

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