I’ve been tinkering with this drink off and on for over a year now, and I think I’ve got it right. Summer before last, our mixmaster friend Steven stayed with us in Southampton for a long weekend and made Whisky Sours for us every evening. (Yes, this is the same Steven who later brought us The Last Word cocktail.) They were delicious. So much so that later I couldn’t exactly remember the recipe, although I doubt Steven made any effort to conceal it. (In my defense, this was before Julia was born.)
The drink is deceptively simple: the complex, deep caramel flavor of good bourbon whisky is lightened with lemon and finished with just a touch of sweetness and . . . . something else.
Was it orange? A traditional garnish for a Whisky Sour is often an orange slice, so I tried adding a dash of orange bitters and a spritz of orange juice. No luck. Was it the lemon? I tried using Meyer lemons, which are sweeter and have a spicier, more orange-like flavor than regular lemons. This only dulled the drink’s flavor. What I did learn, though, was that you need a lot of lemon to bring this cocktail to life: it’s called sour for a reason. I ended up with a ratio of one-third freshly squeezed lemon juice to two-thirds bourbon. For the sweetness, a heaping tablespoon or so of confectioners’ sugar seemed about right.
At this point the drink was good, but not great. To my palate at least, the flavor was still a little flat. The clue to the missing element was the cocktail’s other traditional garnish, the Maraschino cherry. I tried adding Maraschino liqueur without success, but a small amount of kirsch, or cherry brandy, added a fruity note that rounded out the flavor without adding sweetness.
So here, after much arduous experimentation (somebody’s got to do it), is the recipe.
Recipe
(for two drinks)
Ingredients
2/3 cup bourbon whisky
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 -3 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon kirsch (cherry brandy)
Instructions
Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Cover and shake vigorously, at least 20 times. Strain into cocktail glasses and garnish with a slice of lemon and a Maraschino cherry.
