First, I apologize for missing your comment when it first arrived.

Bitters in sours: I agree, hardly anyone makes a sour with bitters, particularly if the sours are in the usual whiskey sour / Daiquiri / Margarita type category. I certainly don’t, and the reason, as I see it, is that the sour is about a completely different flavor profile, with emphasis on the careful balance of citrus and sweetener, rather than on spices, as with the Old Fashioned. It’s not that adding bitters doesn’t make an interesting drink, I just don’t think of it as a sour, and there isn’t a lot of history that would change my mind.

That said, there is the glaring contradiction of the Pisco Sour, although I’ve always suspected that the main thing about bitters in that drink has as much to do with decorating the egg foam as with managing the drink’s flavor profile. There’s also the Trinidad Sour, and at the extreme end of the spectrum, the idiosyncratic Angostura Sour, waiting to call BS on any anti-bitters theory we can come up with…

Lemon peel in sours: I’m with you there. I like to add to lemon peel into the shake, too, and for the same reason—it seems to add a richness and brightness to the drink. I don’t know why it isn’t a regular part of making the drink, nor apparently has it ever been. From a bar management point of view, I would guess it could be a hassle if you squeeze up a lot of juice at the beginning of a shift, then have to take care of a lot of half-mashed lemon peels for the rest of the day. I’m glad you asked, I can’t believe I’ve never asked a bartender about that before. Thanks!

Anyway, another thing I wanted to share is: why almost no recipes or videos on making whisky sour talk about adding the lemon peel into the shaker apart from the main ingredients? I found this to be quite crucial, ’cause it’s like baking anything with lemons: you can add lemon juice into the dow, but it will never be anywhere near as fragrant and lemony as when you add lemon peel to it ’cause it contains all the fragrant essential oils. My trick has always been to add one well-squeezed lemon wedge (1/12-1/8 of a lemon) into the shaker (thus we let the essential oils out) before shaking the ingredients with ice. IMO it adds quite something to the taste and makes it more “fresh”. Try it!

Thanks, Ethan

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yes, I do. It was actually an accident the first time. I liked it enough to recreate it.

Great blog by the way.

Fermented cherry sour cherry juice, nice touch. Thanks for that idea. Do you ferment it yourself?

On a really hot day, I will serve it in a tall glass with a splash of soda, as per your ward 8 entry.

As a side note, fermented cherry juice floats on top and unfermented sinks to the bottom.

I suspect everyone has bittered a sour from time to time. And it does make an interesting cocktail. Technically not a sour, so I’ve wondered what category to put it in?

…and real women, too. You’re right, it’s a fine drink for a hot summer day.

Excellent. I can taste it now… Thanks!

Lime juice. Interesting. And unconventional. I’ll give it a try, thanks.

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A barman in the Italian alps once served me a sour made with bourbon and lime juice garnished with mint leaves. Let me just say that I’ve drunk it many time since. It’s worth a try.

Carl

I really enjoyed this post, as I’m experimenting with this tonight as snow falls in Philadelphia. The addition of the egg white is a big improvement. Also, we’re looking at scaling back the lemon too.

Cheers!

yup

With Scotch it would not be a Mark Twain?

Being lazy, I must admit I buy it ready-made…

*ducks* :)

It does definitely add a bit of the “silkyness” into a drink that I think the egg white would otherwise do.

That would simplify the making, and would solve a problem for people who don’t want to use raw egg whites.

Well, someday, someday, I will actually make gomme syrup…

Funny you should mention the Fitzgerald, it’s on my short list of Cocktails to Try.

Adding Angostura to the Whiskey Sour does result in a very pleasant drink. It must have a name, but so far I haven’t found it. CocktailDB shows something called the “Palmer” which goes down that path, sort of (no sweetener, oof.) And there’s the Buster Brown, which adds orange bitters instead of Angostura. Surely there’s something with a better name than “Whiskey Sour, and Put Some Bitters In It.”

What a delightful idea, have fun!