A whiskey sour is yours for the making year-round. It’s refreshing enough to keep up with a spritz during the warm summer months, and so appropriate during the colder seasons of the year. Even if you’re not a whiskey fan (which breaks my heart), you might still find yourself swooning over a well-crafted whiskey sour. It’s that good! The secret is using fresh ingredients.
The Best Whiskey Sour Ingredients
- Bourbon: Choosing a bourbon for this cocktail shouldn’t be difficult. I recommend a good value bottle, something in the price range of $15 to $25. Next time you’re at a cocktail bar you like, ask the bartender which specific bottles of any given spirit they have in their well bar. This is a great way to find out what’s good, both for your home bar and your budget.
- Lemon juice: Next up, fresh-squeezed lemon juice. I’ll say it again because this is so important: fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Gone are the days of using cheap mixes. If you want the absolute best whiskey sour you ever did taste in your life, then you need the real-deal fresh juice. Simple as that!
- Simple syrup: For the sweetener, use a simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water). There are several whiskey sour recipes out there that call for a heaping bar spoon of sugar. You’re free to go this route, but simple syrup combines so much better, so I prefer and recommend this.
To Use Egg White or Not
Have you ever seen that amazing layer of foam resting gently at the top of a cocktail? Yeah, you can thank egg white for that. To some, using raw egg whites in a cocktail is a novel concept (although this has been a trick of bartenders for nearly a century).Bartenders use egg whites in cocktails, like the whiskey sour, to give it a rich, creamy texture along with a smooth head of foam. To stay on the idea of fresh ingredients, use an organic, pasteurized egg white, as it will be consumed raw (most egg whites sold in the U.S. are pasteurized). If you’re curious about it altering the flavor, just know that egg white is flavorless. It also helps to reduce the acidity from the citrus and bind the flavors together. It enhances the presentation of your whiskey sour, too. Remember, we’re not settling for anything less than an ooh! from you and from your guest.
