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Similar Margarita, Martini, Daiquiri, Old Fashioned, Mojito | ||
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Common examples of sours are the margarita and the sidecar. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks.
Contents
Sours are mixed drinks containing a base liquor, lemon or lime juice, and a sweetener (triple sec, simple syrup, grenadine, or pineapple juice are common). Egg whites are also included in some sours.
List of sours
Gin sour
The Gin Sour is a traditional mixed cocktail that predates Prohibition. It is a simple combination of gin, lemon juice, and sugar. Adding carbonated water to this turns it into a gin fizz.
In an 1898 book by Finley Dunne, Mr. Dooley includes it in a list of great supposedly American inventions.[1]
It was popular during the 1940s, and Kevin Starr includes it in "an array of drinks (the gin sour, the whiskey sour, the Gin Rickey, the Tom Collins, the Pink Lady, the Old Fashioned) that now seem period pieces, evocative of another era."[2]
White Lady
White Lady (also known as a Delilah, or Chelsea Side-car) is essentially a sidecar made with gin in place of brandy. What makes it different from the simple gin sour is the switching of sugar for triple sec. The cocktail sometimes also includes additional ingredients, for example egg white, sugar, or cream.
The classic concoction is most commonly served in a Martini cocktail glass. When an egg white is added a champagne coupe is preferable; the silky foam clings more pleasingly to the curved glass.
It is disputed who originally invented the drink. There are at least two different opinions: first that it was devised by Harry MacElhone in 1919 at Ciro's Club in London. He originally used crème de menthe, but replaced it with gin at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1929.
But The Savoy's Harry Craddock also claims the White Lady (gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon juice). The recipe appears in his Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930. Joe Gilmore, former Head Barman at The Savoy, says this was one of Laurel and Hardy's favorite drinks.
In John le Carré's 1965 novel The Looking Glass War, British spy and main protagonist Fred Leiser's favorite drink is a White Lady, and he makes several attempts to get other agents to try the cocktail.
In Dorothy Sayers' mystery novel Have His Carcase Lord Peter has a White Lady when he hears about his "Lady" Miss Harriet Vane being in trouble again.
Pisco sour
The Pisco Sour contains pisco brandy (usually an un-aged grape brandy from Perú or Chile), key lime or lemon juice, simple syrup, egg white, and bitters. It is shaken, strained, and served straight in a cocktail glass then garnished with the bitters (cinnamon can be used). The addition of egg white creates a foamy head when shaken before serving. While pisco sour is flavoured with key lime by default, pisco is combined with other fruit to create mango sour, maracuya (passion fruit) sour, lucuma sour and so forth. Peru has a National Pisco Sour Day (which lasts a weekend) in mid-February, and Chile has Pisco Day in mid-May.
Whiskey sour
The whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing bourbon whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and optionally a dash of egg white to make it a Boston Sour. It is shaken and served either straight or over ice. The traditional garnish is half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.
A notable variant of the whiskey sour is the Ward 8, which often is based with either bourbon or rye whiskey, 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.