A whiskey sour, like any Sour, is one of the sweeter cocktails I drink. More like a sweet-and-sour cocktail with a preference for the sugar. The first thing I will say about making this drink is that it really teaches you what should go into the do-it-yourself version of drinks most people make using mixers. Mixers are often strangely flat, sweet without a satisfying sour punch to balance everything out.

Lesson number one when making a sour of any kind. Use fresh lemon juice. Mixers, no matter the quality, sit for a long time on the shelf and lack the directly sour punch fresh lemon brings to a drink. Lemons also don’t sit in your fridge for 6 months waiting until the next time you crave a Sour. I think I have some mixer in my fridge that was last used before I moved into this apartment.

Simply syrup is the second ingredient you absolutely need. I’ve seen so many recipes for drinks, like lemon drops, that tried to use granulated sugar in a cold shaker to sweeten it up. Final result? A pile of sugar grains at the bottom of my glass even if I shook it up for more than a minute! Simple syrup is the solution and it really is quite simple to make. All you need is equal parts sugar and water, I usually use 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. You heat the water and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved and then remove it from the heat. Once it is cool pour it into a storage container of some kind. Make more or less depending on what you have to store it in, I recommend a small miniature wine carafe or a small condiment style squirt bottle. Store it in the fridge and it should last forever a long time.

Ingredients:

2 oz. whiskey, rye or bourbon
1 oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 oz. simple syrup
1 cocktail cherry, to garnish
ice

Take the whiskey, lemon juice and simple syrup and pour them into a cocktail shaker. Add the ice and shake vigorously for around 30 seconds to a minute. Strain into a chilled glass, chilled in the freezer for around 30 minutes or longer, and garnish with a cocktail cherry. Serve with your favorite appetizer and enjoy!