Whiskey Sour

Taste

Two ounces of bourbon, three-quarters lemon, half an ounce of demerara, egg white. The foam is the texture; demerara is brown sugar under the lemon. Shaken, rocks with ice, cherry and lemon. A short sour with a dry cap.

History

The Oxford Companion finds a whisky sour in print as early as 1826, in a list of ways to drink whisky, and Jerry Thomas prints sours in 1862. The Waukesha Plain Dealer uses the name in 1870 without explaining it. Paul Clarke, in The Oxford Companion, tracks egg white as a European addition from the 1920s that was common in America by the 1940s. The Atlanta Daily Constitution put it in 1879: when American meets American, then comes the whisky sour. This menu pours two ounces of bourbon, three-quarters lemon, half an ounce of demerara, egg white, over ice with cherry and lemon. No wine float.

• The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, The Whisky Sour

Same shape, other bottles

The Sour family, with the bottle that changed.

• Gin Sourgin and simple syrup for bourbon and demerara syrup
• Harvest Sourrye, apple brandy, and simple syrup for bourbon and demerara syrup
• Mezcal Sourmezcal and lime juice for bourbon and lemon juice
• Buster Brownwith orange bitters
• Pink Ladygin, apple brandy, and lime juice for bourbon and lemon juice
• Daiquirilight rum and lime juice for bourbon and lemon juice