How to Make a Whiskey Sour: The Classic Whiskey Cocktail

The Whiskey Sour is one of the best examples of why cocktails don’t need to be complicated to be good.

Whiskey. Lemon juice. Sugar. That’s the basic idea.

Add ice, shake the hell out of it, and you’ve got a drink that’s sweet, sour, boozy and ridiculously easy to make.

It’s also one of the few whiskey cocktails where the whiskey doesn’t completely dominate the drink. The lemon brings acidity, the sugar takes the edge off, and suddenly a bourbon you might not particularly enjoy drinking neat can become a very good cocktail.

And that’s part of what makes the Whiskey Sour so useful.

You don’t need an expensive bottle. You don’t need specialist ingredients. You don’t need to know anything about mixology.

You just need to get the balance right.

What Is a Whiskey Sour?

A Whiskey Sour is a classic sour-style cocktail made with whiskey, fresh lemon juice and sugar.

The basic formula is incredibly simple:

Spirit + citrus + sweetener.

That’s the foundation behind a whole family of cocktails, including drinks like the Daiquiri and Margarita.

The Whiskey Sour traditionally uses whiskey as its base, with bourbon being particularly common today.

The result is a cocktail that sits somewhere between a whiskey drink and a refreshing citrus cocktail.

It’s boozy, but not aggressively so.

It’s sweet, but shouldn’t be sugary.

And it’s sour, obviously, but it shouldn’t make you feel like you’ve just bitten into a lemon.

Whiskey Sour Ingredients

For one Whiskey Sour, you’ll need:

• 2 oz (60 ml) bourbon or rye whiskey
• ¾ oz (22 ml) fresh lemon juice
• ¾ oz (22 ml) simple syrup
• Ice
• Maraschino cherry, optional
• Orange or lemon peel, optional

That’s it.

And there’s one ingredient here I’d strongly recommend not cutting corners on:

Fresh lemon juice.

Don’t use bottled lemon juice if you can avoid it.

You’re making a cocktail with three main ingredients. The quality of each one matters.

Fresh lemon juice takes about ten seconds to squeeze.

It’s worth it.

How to Make a Whiskey Sour

1. Add everything to a shaker

Pour 2 oz of whiskey, ¾ oz fresh lemon juice and ¾ oz simple syrup into a cocktail shaker.

Then add ice.

You can adjust the sweetness later, but this is a good starting point.

If you’re using a particularly sweet bourbon, you might want slightly less syrup.

If you’re using a spicy rye, you may find that the extra sweetness works nicely.

Cocktails are supposed to be adjusted to taste.

2. Shake it

Shake hard for around 10–15 seconds.

This isn’t a drink you want to gently stir.

You’ve got lemon juice in there, and shaking chills the drink while properly mixing the citrus, whiskey and syrup.

Shake until the outside of the shaker becomes cold.

You should also get a decent amount of dilution from the ice.

That’s a good thing.

3. Strain

Strain the cocktail into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice.

You can use one large cube or several smaller cubes.

If you want a slightly more elegant presentation, you can also serve it straight up in a coupe or Nick & Nora glass.

Personally, there’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple.

Whiskey Sour + rocks glass + big piece of ice.

Done.

4. Garnish

A maraschino cherry and/or lemon or orange peel works well.

You don’t need an elaborate garnish.

The drink is already doing the heavy lifting.

If you’re using a lemon peel, give it a quick twist over the drink to release some of the citrus oils before dropping it into the glass.

Should You Use Bourbon or Rye?

This is where things get interesting.

Bourbon Whiskey Sour

Bourbon is probably the easiest place to start.

The natural sweetness of bourbon works really well with lemon juice, while the vanilla, caramel and oak flavors give the cocktail some depth.

The result is usually rounder and smoother.

If you’re making Whiskey Sours for a group of people and don’t know what everyone likes, bourbon is probably the safest choice.

Rye Whiskey Sour

Rye changes the drink quite a bit.

The spice and peppery character of rye gives the Whiskey Sour more bite.

The lemon makes that spice even more noticeable, while the sugar keeps everything balanced.

If you like Manhattans or Old Fashioneds made with rye, try a rye Whiskey Sour.

You might prefer it.

The Most Important Part: Balance

This is where a lot of homemade Whiskey Sours go wrong.

Too much lemon and you’ve basically made alcoholic lemonade.

Too much sugar and you’ve made whiskey syrup.

Too much whiskey and the drink can taste harsh and unbalanced.

The starting ratio of 2 parts whiskey, ¾ part lemon and ¾ part syrup gives you a pretty balanced drink.

But don’t treat it like a law.

Your lemons aren’t always equally sour.

Your whiskey isn’t always equally sweet.

Your simple syrup might be different from mine.

Taste and adjust.

That’s how you actually learn to make cocktails.

Do You Need Egg White?

No.

But you can use it.

The egg white version is sometimes referred to as a Boston Sour. The egg white adds a silky texture and creates the thick foam that you’ll often see on top of a more elaborate Whiskey Sour.

If you’re just making a drink at home, though, you absolutely don’t need it.

A normal Whiskey Sour without egg white is simpler, faster and still excellent.

If you do want to try the egg-white version, you’ll generally want to shake the ingredients first without ice, then shake again with ice before straining.

That’s called a dry shake followed by a wet shake.

But don’t worry about that until you’ve mastered the basic version.

Should You Use Simple Syrup or Sugar?

Simple syrup is the easiest option.

It’s just sugar and water, usually mixed at roughly equal parts by volume.

Because the sugar is already dissolved, it incorporates into the cocktail immediately.

You can use granulated sugar, but you’ll have to work harder to dissolve it properly.

For a Whiskey Sour, there’s really no reason to make things more difficult.

Use simple syrup.

Can You Make a Whiskey Sour With Cheap Whiskey?

Absolutely.

In fact, I’d encourage you to experiment.

A Whiskey Sour is a good cocktail for testing inexpensive bourbon because the lemon and sugar soften some of the rougher edges.

That doesn’t mean you should use terrible whiskey.

But you certainly don’t need a $100 bottle.

Something in the $25–50 range is more than capable of making a great Whiskey Sour.

And once you find a whiskey that works particularly well, you’ve got another excuse to keep a bottle around.

As if you needed one.

Common Whiskey Sour Mistakes

Using bottled lemon juice

Don’t.

Fresh lemon makes a noticeable difference.

Making it too sweet

Start with ¾ oz of syrup.

If you want it sweeter, add more next time.

Not shaking long enough

You want the drink properly chilled and diluted.

Give it a proper shake.

Using too much lemon

More sour doesn’t automatically mean better.

The goal is balance.

Using a great whiskey you don’t want to mix

There’s nothing wrong with using expensive whiskey in a cocktail.

But if you’ve got a bottle you’ve been saving for neat pours, you probably don’t need to pour two ounces of it into a Whiskey Sour.

A good, reasonably priced bourbon can do the job beautifully.

The Caskable Whiskey Sour

If you just want the recipe without all the bullshit, this is where I’d start:

2 oz (60 ml) bourbon or rye whiskey

¾ oz (22 ml) fresh lemon juice

¾ oz (22 ml) simple syrup

Ice

Cherry or citrus peel, optional

Add everything to a cocktail shaker with ice.

Shake hard for 10–15 seconds.

Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

Garnish with a cherry or lemon peel.

Drink.

If it’s too sour, add a little more syrup next time.

If it’s too sweet, add a little more lemon.

If it tastes flat, try a different whiskey.

That’s really all there is to it.

The Whiskey Sour isn’t trying to be clever. It’s just a very good combination of whiskey, citrus and sugar.

And sometimes that’s all you need.