Pucker up for a sour... sweet!
In its simplest form, a ‘‘sour’’ is any spirit plus citrus juice plus simple syrup. As with all mixology, the magic comes in finding the perfect ratios and flavour matches. As a very broad rule of thumb I would say that whiskey loves lemon juice, tequila and rum love lime juice, and gin swings both ways. But of course there are many more spirits and citrus variations available in this wide world of drinks. Here are two of the most famous sours.
The king of the sours in my mind is the mighty pisco sour. Pisco is a South American brandy that either originates in Peru or Chile – they have a bit of a pavlovatype dispute over who invented both the spirit and the cocktail, although Peru has been given official bragging rights and most experts trace this iteration of the drink back to 1920s Lima.
The pisco sour has the once common but now strange-to-some ingredient of raw egg white; but don’t let this put you off. Sipping through the sweet, meringue-like foam to the sweet and sour liquid beneath is one of the great pleasures on this Earth. If you are an enterprising non-egg consumer you can substitute the egg white with aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas), but just make sure it doesn’t have any salt added.
Pisco sour
60ml pisco
30ml simple syrup (a 1:1 ratio of water to sugar, boiled so the sugar dissolves)
25ml lime juice
1 egg white
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
Put the pisco, simple syrup, lime juice and egg white into a shaker and fill up with ice. Shake with great vigor and then strain into a shaker without ice for a dry shake – this step is what gets you a good head of foam, so give it a bit of elbow. Pour into a tumbler or two small cocktail glasses and dot the top with the bitters.
While the egg white (or aquafaba) element in a pisco sour is nonnegotiable, it is an optional extra in the whiskey sour. Some folk argue that a three ingredient whiskey sour is the original form, while others say the addition of egg white turns the drink into a Boston sour.
Such is the way with cocktail lore – basically, the egg white here produces a silkier drink that will appeal to some but is easily left out (I usually don’t bother with it). Follow your fancy.
Whiskey sour
45ml whiskey (bourbon or rye are popular for this drink, but you can use whatever you prefer) 45ml fresh lemon juice
25ml simple syrup
1 egg white (optional)
Add all the ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and give it a good shake. If you are including the egg white, the aim is to have everything well incorporated, but you don’t need to build the foam as with a pisco sour, so no second shaking required. Strain into a tumbler or old fashioned glass with a couple of ice cubes and garnish with a twist of lemon peel or a maraschino cherry.