Sours

A typical whiskey sour in a non-standard glass.
Type	Cocktail family
Alcohol common in this class of cocktail	Gin Bourbon whiskey Brandy Pisco Rum Amaretto
Notes	See the article for specifics.

A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks; the word itself is often used as a post-positive adjective when in the name of a drink. Common examples of sours are the margarita and the sidecar. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks. ^[1] Sours are mixed drinks containing a base liquor (bourbon or some other whiskey in the case of a whiskey sour), lemon or lime juice, egg white, and a sweetener (triple sec, simple syrup, grenadine, or pineapple juice are common).^[2]

List of sours [edit]

• Kamikaze
   IBA 
  — vodka, triple sec, and lime juice, mixed in equal parts. It is also served as a shot.
• Daiquiri
• Sidecar
• Margarita
• Amaretto sour

Gin sour [edit]

The Gin Sour is a traditional mixed cocktail that predates prohibition.

In an 1898 book by Finley Dunne, Mr. Dooley includes it in a list of great supposedly American inventions:^[1]

I have seen America spread out fr'm th' Atlantic to th' Pacific... An' th' invintions, — th' steam-injine an' th' printin-press an th' cotton gin an' the gin sour an' th' bicycle an' th' flying machine an' th' nickel-in-th'-slot machine an' th' Croker machine an' th' sody fountain an' — crownin' wur-ruk iv our civilization — th' cash raygister.

Popular during the 1940s, Kevin Starr includes it in "an array of drinks (the gin sour, the whiskey sour, the Gin Rickey, the Tom Collins, the Pink lady, the Old Fashioned) that now seem period pieces, evocative of another era."^[2]

White Lady [edit]

White Lady

Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Gin
Served	shaken
Standard garnish	Sugared glass, lemon rind
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
Commonly used ingredients	Two parts gin One part Cointreau One part lemon juice
Preparation	Mix the ingredients in a shaker half full of ice. Strain and serve in a sugar-rimmed glass. Garnish with a strip of lemon rind
Notes	This cocktail is a variant of the Sidecar

White Lady (also known as a Delilah, Chelsea Side-car, Kiernander and Lillian Forever) is essentially a Sidecar made with gin in place of brandy. The cocktail sometimes also includes additional ingredients, e.g. egg white, sugar and cream.

The classic concoction is most commonly served in a Martini cocktail glass. When an egg white is added a champagne saucer is preferable; the silky foam clings more pleasingly to the curved glass.

It is disputed who originally invented this cocktail. There are at least two different opinions. Firstly, that this cocktail was devised by Harry MacElhone in 1919 at Ciro's Club in London. He originally used crème de menthe, but replaced it with gin at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1929.^[3]

But The Savoy's Harry Craddock also claims the White Lady (gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon juice). The recipe appears in his Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930.^[4] Joe Gilmore, former Head Barman at The Savoy, says this was one of Laurel and Hardy's favorite drinks.^[5]

In John le Carré's 1965 novel The Looking Glass War, British spy and main protagonist Fred Leiser's favorite drink is a White Lady, and he makes several attempts to get the other agents to try the cocktail.

In Dorothy Sayers' mystery-novel Have his Carcase Lord Peter has a White Lady, when he hears about his 'Lady' in spe Miss Harriet Vane being in trouble again. You can see this very nice in the BBC-Series (1987) as part of a series starring Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter and Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane.

Pisco sour [edit]

The Pisco Sour contains pisco brandy (an un-aged grape brandy from Peru and Chile), lime juice, sugar, egg white, and bitters.^[6] It is shaken, strained, and served straight in a cocktail glass. The addition of egg white creates a foamier consistency.^[7]

Whiskey sour [edit]

The whiskey sour is a famous mixed drink containing Bourbon whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and optionally a dash of egg white to make it a Boston Sour. It is shaken and served either straight or over ice. The traditional garnish is half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

A notable variant of the whiskey sour is the Ward 8, which often is based either in Bourbon or rye whiskey, with both lemon and orange juices, and grenadine syrup as the sweetener. The egg white sometimes employed in other whiskey sours is generally not included in this variation.

Other sours [edit]

• Brandy Sour or Brandy Daisy (Jerry Thomas, 1887)—brandy, clear or orange curaçao, sugar, lemon juice, shaken and strained into a wine glass.
• Cypriot Brandy Sour—Cyprus brandy, lemon cordial and bitters, stirred in a tall glass, and topped with soda or lemonade.
• Santa Cruz Sour (Jerry Thomas, 1887)—Santa Cruz rum, sugar, lemon juice, shaken and strained into a wine glass.
• Midori Sour—Honeydew melon liquor, grenadine, lemon juice. Poured properly, it resembles a green Tequila Sunrise with visible layers.
• Caipirinha—Cachaça, sugar, lime, ice in an Old fashioned glass.

See also [edit]

• Lemon juice
• Lime juice
• List of cocktails

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Jacques Barzun, 2001 (reprint), Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War, University of Illinois, ISBN 0-252-07029-1. Originally published by Small, Maynard and Co., 1898. Collected from newspaper columns. Online sources cite 1897 as the year of this particular quotation.
2. ^ Kevin Starr, 2002, "Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940–1950 (Americans and the California Dream)", Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-512437-5, A9 page image
3. ^ Tom Bullock, 1917, The Ideal Bartender. Project Gutenberg eBook. The directions "½ Lime Juice" and "½ Orange Juice" are as given in the source and presumably refer to the juice of half a lime and half an orange, respectively.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

The Wikibook Bartending has a page on the topic of: Whiskey Sour