For ➊ drink6 cl Bourbon whiskey*
juice of 1 lemon**
2 ts fine sugar
(egg white)***
Place all of the ingredients and half a tumbler of ice into a cocktail shaker.
Shake.
Pour into a tumbler glass.
Garnish with a cherry.
Shake.
Pour into a tumbler glass.
Garnish with a cherry.
*Use a rye whiskey instead, or even a European whisky.
**Use lime juice instead to achieve a more complex taste.
***Sometimes added to have quicker froth on top. Avoid it and shake the cocktail more vigourisly.
The whiskey sour had its (revival) high day in the early and mid 60's. It belongs to one of the old families of original American cocktails, appearing in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 drinks book alongside other cocktail ancestors, the juleps, slings, sangarees, cobblers and smashes. The whiskey sour has survived the ages, due to its simple nature in making, not to mention its humble ingredients, and great effect in drinking.
It's part of the great international conspiracy of sour cocktails, spreading from whiskey (or Bourbon) sour to the daiquiri, the pisco sour, the margarita, the sidecar, the aviation, the amaretto sour and the cosmo, all based on the simple formula: two parts spirits, juice of half a lemon, and just enough sugar, or a sweet liquor to drink it smoothly.
A notable variant is the Ward 8, which often is based either on 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.
While it can be made with all good American rye whiskeys, or even European whiskies, it works smoothly with Bourbon. The name derives from Bourbon County, a frontier district at the Virginia/Kentucky border, where distilleries were established in the late 19th century.
The picture shows über virile Western movies' actor Hugh O'Brian in a 1964 ad for Heublein Whiskey Sour. Minus the lemon...
