Master The Classics: Whiskey Sour
Before the singular mixed drink (what we now think of as a cocktail) the practice was to drink large format drinks in a punch bowl and share it amongst friends. As time went on this began to change as the pace of life got busier and it people began to look down on sitting around for hours on end to drink a punch bowl and get hammered. People were just too busy for so much day drinking, but that didn’t mean they didn’t want to drink. They just needed something they could imbibe quickly: enter the one-off punch in the late 1850’s. Because people had less time, bartenders began making punch recipes designed to be served to one person in a glass that could be drank quickly. According to David Wondrich the very first of these were the Fix and the Sour. And while these drinks were almost identical in ingredients, each had a different build entirely centered around how quickly you were meant to drink them. Of these two drinks it was the Sour (originally done with Gin) which captured the imagination of the public and found itself expanding into it’s own category. So the sour began to get spun out into all sorts of different variations and was in it’s day the most requested drink. Although the first sours were done over crushed ice the egg white variation of the drink emerged around 1890’s and it was in the decade leading up to the turn of the century that so many popular variations such as the New York Sour, Jersey Sour, Jack Frost Sour and Dizzy Sour emerged. It was as Davind Wonndrich writes: “one of the cardinal points of American Drinking” and it definitely deserves consideration today. Enjoy!
Tutorial Starts at 3:51
Here’s links to the gear I use in this episode:
Barfly Bell Jigger: https://amzn.to/2BNUJWe
Barfly Shaking Set: https://amzn.to/2OYG0w4
Barfly Hawthorn Strainer: https://amzn.to/2OkFZ8v
Angostura Bitters: https://amzn.to/2J5tqcf
Bottle With Dropper: https://amzn.to/2GW9vNI
Libbey Footed Rocks Glass: https://amzn.to/2sF5ipe
If you guys haven’t read the book Imbibe by David Wondrich, you should. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/2tB3z56
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Here’s The Specs:
2oz (60ml) Whiskey
.75oz (22.5ml) Lemon Juice
.75oz (22.5ml) Simple Syrup
1 Egg White
Garnish Angostura Bitters
YT Source