The Whiskey Sour is Both the Best and Worst Cocktail in the World!

The whiskey sour is both the best and worst cocktail in the world. It’s the perfect opportunity to flex your combination of fresh ingredients, curation of bitters and syrup, and choice of base spirit. While some feel freaky about the egg white (don’t worry vegans, I am one of you and will offer solutions here) for good reason, proper preparation and handling of this strange element of the cocktail add to its intrigue. 

When done poorly, featuring, a thick,  burns your throat all the way down,   ‘sweet and sour mix’, it can be a dumpster fire of hot garbage. We will offer solutions to make this cocktail the least dumpster fiery version possible. 

Lemon, sugar, whisk(e)y, egg white, bitters, that’s it. 

Read as: 

Fresh squeezed lemon juice: prepared less than 3 days prior, strained and refrigerated 

Simple syrup: not containing baking soda or mold as many dive bar varieties do 

Whiskey: bourbon, rye, Tennessee, as well as the Irish spirit (+non alc!) 

Whisky: Scotland, Canada, and Japan

Egg White: split off from egg yolk, preferably not from a carton of egg yolks, kept refrigerated for use 

Vegan egg white: Aquafaba (the residual juice from a can of chickpeas; strained, refrigerated) 

Bitters: traditionally aromatic bitters, however the ones with the yellow cap are made with artificial caramel color so we are going to offer a better solution. 

Base recipe: 

1.5 - 2 oz base spirit, or whisk(e)y (we are very much pro lo - ABV) 

.75 oz fresh squeezed Lemon Juice (strained) 

.75 Simple Syrup pH Alchemy Simple Syrup (our is shelf stable and free from harsh chemical preservatives so you don’t have to worry about it ruining the rest of the drink) 

Egg yolk (all of it, or .75 oz Aquafaba) 

Bitters - for aromatic garnish pH Alchemy House Bitters (ours are free from artificial ingredients and full of whole botanical flavor and nose)

Combine your ingredients into a shaker tin with light ice, shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Be careful with the seal on your shaker tin as the egg white will build pressure and can want to pop off – all bartenders have been coated in a full egg white bath in the middle of an extremely busy bar shift - always at the worst time possible. Gently slap the side of the shaker tin so that the small part comes out easily. Using a hawthorn strainer, strain the big part of the tin into the small part, then dump that ice, then strain the cocktail back into the small shaker and seal the tins. Shake for another 5 seconds – the pressure from the tins is really going to want to burst so be careful! 

Once this is done, use that hawthorn strainer to strain your whiskey sour into a coupe glass. What you just did was referred to as a reverse dry shake, meaning that you shook the cocktail without ice (for maximum froth) after shaking it with ice (for chill and dilution) so that the ice wouldn’t get in the way of that killer whiskey sour texture. 

This last part is super fun. On your finished whiskey sour cocktail that is now in your coupe glass, drop a few (3 -10) dots of bitters to the top, and they should sit there on the foam. You can get creative here with a tiny toothpick and drag the tip through the dots to make hearts, or connect them all together to make a kind of wreath of hearts. This is both pretty and offers a nice nose of aromatic bitters as the intro into sipping the cocktail. 

Other options include using some non alc Whiskey alternatives out there on the market, experimenting with shrubs to add extra acidic, swapping out the bitters with another variety, as well as experimenting with different seasonal simple syrups to pair with dinner or the event of the evening. Feel confident swapping out ingredients with the same recipe as the one above and get creative with your pallet, and you will be able to create your perfect version of this cocktail. 
Bonus: The NY Sour is a popular variation on the whiskey sour, but instead of including egg white, a thin layer of red wine is floated on top of the cocktail, which is served in a rocks glass with ice instead of a coupe glass. Have fun experimenting with the recipe above and spicy, dry red wines that add texture and complexity to the composition.

by Jared Weirman, Director, Wholesale and Special Projects