- Hi, bro and welcome back to the cocktail blog.
I'm Steve, the bartender,
and today I'm showing you how to make a whiskey sour.
I couldn't believe that I haven't actually made
a whiskey sour as a sole video on the channel.
So I had to make this one.
I was recently on punchdrink.com and I came across
an article about the best whiskey sour recipe.
They invited 17 of America's best bartenders
to submit a whiskey sour recipe and then they sat down
with the judging panel and decided which one was the best.
So today I'm showing you the three top whiskey sour recipes.
Make sure you stick around because the last one
is a little bit of an unorthodox twist on the whiskey sour,
an ingredient that wouldn't normally go in one,
and probably for that reason,
it was voted the best whiskey sour.
So traditionally, a whiskey sour is just whiskey,
lemon juice and sugar.
And as time went on it called for the addition of egg white
to add texture to the drink.
I'm not gonna go into the history
and the background of the drink.
I'll leave that information in the description below
because I'm just pumped to try the three best
whiskey sour recipes that are available.
The first one comes from Neal Bodenheimer.
I'll leave more detail about these particular bartenders,
where they work, where they're from
in the description as well.
I'm not gonna remember all those kind of details.
This one is a bourbon-based whiskey sour.
Actually, I'm not going do this,
I'm gonna follow his recipe to a T,
which actually calls for dry shaking just some
of the ingredients, not all of them,
but if you're making this at home,
you can dry-shake all the ingredients at once, if you like.
So it calls for 22.5 mil,
three quarter ounce of fresh lemon juice,
And believe it or not,
that is the juice from just two lemons.
These things are monsters.
Then we've got a small egg.
This is actually a large egg so I'll measure it out.
So a small egg is gonna be about 15 mil
or half an ounce.
And then dry shake those ingredients.
(dry shaking)
Then measure 60 mil, two ounces of bourbon.
Add that straight in.
And then 22.5 mil,
three quarter ounce of one-to-one simple syrup.
And it specifically calls for five ice cubes.
Five.
I didn't actually write down
but I'm pretty sure it said shake 20 times.
(shaking mixer)
Now fill that old-fashioned glass with ice
And fine-strain over the top.
And I have to wait until the foam separates.
Meantime, I'll slice an orange
and grab my skewered maraschino.
So now that that's separated, spray with angostura bitters.
Kinda miss them.
And then garnish with slice of orange and maraschino cherry.
That is number three in the top three whiskey sour recipes.
Cheers.
That's a bloody delicious whiskey sour.
It's like classic style.
That's pretty much exactly
how I would make my whiskey sours.
The only difference is I'd do a dash of bitters
as opposed to spraying over the top.
But I do like, the addition of the spray on the top
really lets the aromatic bitters aroma,
it's like just really vibrant.
It's good.
So onto the second best whiskey sour recipe
by Erik Adkins.
This is incredibly similar to the first one
with three subtle changes.
We're using slightly less sugar syrup so therefore it's
more acidic and not as sweet, and we're serving it up
in a coupe glass instead of over ice.
And no angostura bitters spray.
But apart from that, it's essentially the same.
So there's small, minute tweaks
that takes it to that next level,
according to the judges, I haven't tried it yet.
So we'll soon find out.
So this one calls for 60 mil of bourbon whiskey
and 22.5 mil, three quarter ounce of fresh lemon juice,
15 Mil, half an ounce,
of simple syrup, one-to-one,
and egg whites, 15 mil, half an ounce.
And again, dry shake.
(dry shaking)
And add five, four cubes,
very specific,
four ice cubes, and wet shake.
(wet shaking)
Straight into a chilled glass
and double-strain..
And there you have Erik Adkins'
second most popular whiskey sour recipe.
I don't actually think I've ever personally
served up a whiskey sour in a coupe glass.
I know it's probably pretty popular
and a lot of people do it like that.
It's just, I haven't.
Cheers.
As predicted, it's a little bit more acidic.
Kinda subdues the whiskey because it's got
that higher acid profile.
I actually think I prefer the first one.
Whew.
I like that tiny little bit more of sugar
and the aromas from the aromatic bitters,
but this is still very, very delicious.
Onto the number one whiskey sour recipe
by Dan Sabo, as voted by a panel from punchdrink.com.
Kind of sounds like I'm doing a sponsored video
for Punch Drink, but I'm not.
It's just a really good website.
So make sure you check it out, if you haven't already.
The difference with this one
is it calls for 100 proof rye whiskey.
The original recipe does call for Rittenhouse.
I'm using Knob Creek,
but it is still is the same percentage.
Assuming, because it's a stronger whiskey,
he has also increased the citrus component
and also the sugar so everything's kind of bolstered up.
This one calls for 60 mil of 100 proof rye,
and then 30 mil, one ounce, of fresh lemon juice
and 15 mil of rich simple syrup,
which is a two-to-one sugar syrup by weight.
So 15 mil, half an ounce.
You won't be able to see it on camera
but you can definitely tell it's a lot thicker
than the other simple syrup.
Then secret sauce, 15 mil,
half an ounce of freshly-squeezed orange juice.
Controversial. Freshly-squeezed.
Then we've got egg white, 15 mil.
Now, a small tip, I can't remember who told me this,
it wasn't actually that long ago, if you do wanna actually
measure out your egg white.
If you do use a knife to quickly cut the egg white
and it's actually easier to pour and kinda separate.
Otherwise, if you don't do that, the whole thing's
just gonna, just dump into (indistinct).
So, 15 milliliter egg white,
and then dry shake.
(dry shaking)
Emulsify the egg.
Now, this recipe doesn't call for the number of cubes
I'm meant to use so, just throwing in a big scoop.
(dry shaking)
Also doesn't call for a double-strain.
So just straining over fresh ice
into an old-fashioned glass.
Just a tiny little bit left in there for later,
and garnish
with an orange slice
and a maraschino cherry.
There you have the best whiskey sour recipe,
according to a panel of judges.
I have high hopes.
Cheers.
(laughs)
That's really good.
I'm gonna have to do a side-by-side comparison
because it's been a couple minutes
since I tried the first one.
It's definitely got a small kick from the 100 proof whiskey.
Little bit of, sorta subtle spice to it.
Let's line up all three.
So onto the side-by-side tasting of the
three best whiskey sour recipes
to let you know, personally, what I think.
First up, Neal Bodenheimer's whiskey sour,
which was a little bit sweeter,
bourbon base whiskey sour.
All right, it's definitely the sweeter of the three,
but I love it, I like it.
The beautiful balance between the sugar
and the citrus.
You could probably do with that template,
but use the rye whiskey instead,
that would work really nice.
This is an extremely crushable whiskey sour recipe.
I like it.
And onto Erik Adkins.
As I said earlier, I've never served my whiskey sour up,
but actually, I quite like it.
It's dainty.
I just don't think it's quite balanced.
It's a little bit too acidic for me.
It just needs that touch more sugar.
But again, you can't go wrong with a whiskey sour.
They're tasty.
And this one is by Dan Sabo, voted by panelists
as being the number one whiskey sour recipe,
utilizing rye whiskey.
It's perfectly balanced.
So I'm gonna take this one out
and just be comparing the two,
because these are the two that I prefer.
They're both slightly different.
You got this underlying spiciness from the rye whiskey.
You've got, definitely got more booze there.
It's a little bit sweeter,
but I like the sweetness.
It's hard.
Please don't comment that I should have a glass of water
between tasting 'em just to clear my palette.
I'm drinking a whiskey sour.
- I can understand where the panelists are coming from.
Little bit more complexity,
whereas that is a sweeter style whiskey sour.
For the average person,
probably make it a little bit sweeter.
For someone that loves their whiskey
or a professional bartender, someone that probably drinks
a little bit too much, then I'd go for the rye whiskey,
the rye-forward.
At the end of the day,
I would absolutely love either of these.
I'd like to see your take on it.
If you try them both, let me know in the comments below
and let me know what your preferred whiskey sour recipe is.
So two quick things before I go,
if you did enjoy today's video
and you'd love whiskey cocktails, make sure you check out
the whiskey cocktail playlist up here.
And question of the day I had by,
(bleep) I don't even know who it was.
(laughs)
And question of the day from Wilson Ko:
can I replace lemon juice for the lime juice.
Now in a bartending environment, you wouldn't do that.
Lemon and lime juice is somewhat similar.
They're both highly acidic citrus juices.
Lemon juice does have more sugar content
and lime juice is slightly more acidic.
But in saying that, if you don't have access to lemons
or you don't have access to limes then you could easily
substitute them and that's not a problem.
If I'm making cocktails for friends at home
and I've got limes in the fridge, but I wanted lemons,
I'll still use the limes.
But in a professional setting where I'm making drinks
for paying guests, I'll make sure I have the right citrus
for that particular drink.
But, saying that, at home, do what you want.
You can substitute and it works.
Thanks for watching guys.
Make sure you like and subscribe and I'll see you soon
for another cocktail video.
Cheers.
(calm music)