Cocktail · Medium strength

Whiskey Sour

Whiskey, lemon, sugar — proof that balance is a flavor.

How to order it: Egg white for silk if you're fancy. Shaken hard, served cold.

Flavor profile

Sweetness6
Bitterness3
Strength6
Freshness6
Richness4
Sparkle0
Daring3

The recipe

  • 2 oz bourbon
  • ¾ oz lemon juice
  • ¾ oz simple syrup
  • Optional egg white; shake hard
  • Rocks; cherry and orange
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Modern variations

The Whiskey Sour cast a long shadow. These pours carry the torch:

Penicillin

Cocktail

Scotch, honey-ginger, lemon, and a float of smoky Islay. Modern-classic medicine.

Amaretto Sour

Cocktail

Almond, lemon, and silk — the sour that traded whiskey for dessert.

Gold Rush

Cocktail

Bourbon, lemon, honey — three ingredients panning for gold and finding it.

New York Sour

Cocktail

A whiskey sour wearing a red wine float like a velvet cape.

Adjacent pours

Bee's Knees

Cocktail

Gin, honey, lemon — Prohibition's way of making bathtub gin taste like spring.

Cosmopolitan

Cocktail

Citrus vodka, cranberry, lime — unfairly memed, secretly excellent.

Pisco Sour

Cocktail

Pisco, lime, egg white, bitters — Peru's silky national treasure.