Real men drink whiskey, but even real men enjoy something refreshing, cool and delicious on a hot summer’s day; enter the whiskey sour.
While you can find multiple Whiskey Sour recipes online, I’m of the opinion that things should never be made more complex than they need to be. At the same time you should never dumb something down, if you’re going to do something do it properly.
This whiskey sour recipe is about as classic as it gets, refined by my own hand. Follow it and you’ll be the toast of your friends, literally.
What you need to make a whiskey sour
- Martini shaker
- Rye straight whiskey (if you can’t find real Rye, not Canadian Rye, use Bourbon)
- Fresh whole lemons (1 per drink)
- Super fine sugar (I like to use berry sugar, as icing sugar tastes odd to me)
- Large Egg (1 per drink)
- Orange Bitters (not crucial, but highly recommended)
- Ice
Note: This drink was originally created to be made with real Rye. It is the only whiskey I would use for this drink… but if you really can’t get your hands on true Rye bourbon will work nicely in its place.
More Notes: This drink makes a single, it will fill about half of your whiskey glass, double everything up for a full glass.
First, squeeze the shit out of a lemon into a standard short whiskey glass, removing any seeds. You’ll want to squeeze one lemon per drink, around 1oz.
Once your lemon is squeezed pour an equal amount of whiskey into the same cup (or measure the lemon and match it with the whiskey). I like to use just a tad more whiskey than lemon juice; again this will be around 1oz.
Fill a martini shaker ¾ full with ice.
Sprinkle 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar over the ice (you can use more or less of this to taste, if you like things a little more sour start with one flat teaspoon and work from there).
Pour the lemon/whiskey mix over the ice.
Crack an egg and add just the egg white on top of the ice. If you’ve never done this before just “juggle” the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, letting the white slide out into the shaker.
Put just 2 drops (not dashes) of Orange bitters into the mix. You’re not trying to flavor the drink orange, this is just to help round out drink for a complete full-bodied flavor.
Put the lid on the shaker and shake the living fuck out of your mix. You’ll want to shake harder and longer than you have ever shook any martini. The reason for this is to beat up the egg white, which will give the drink a perfect frothy meringue like head, and a distinct every-so-slippery texture.
Be warned, a metal martini shaker will get extremely cold while doing this. In fact it can get cold enough to really hurt your hands. I suggest holding it all (tightly) in a tea towel.
Strain out the mix back into the glass, and enjoy.
PS. Since the mixture is frothy from all the shaking it can take a little while to strain the whole contents of the shaker into the glass. Just jiggle and be patient.
Garnish: No real man will ever garnish this drink with a maraschino cherry. If you really feel the need to get fruity and garnish, use a slice or orange. You should also never fill the glass with ice, we’ve already diluted the whiskey with lemon juice, no need to water the drink down any more.
There you go, not only do you get to drink an amazingly delicious fruity drink, it’s won’t make you feel like any less of a man while you drink it.
About Sean Lind
My time is divided between writing, women, pinball and playing my guitar. I give lots of advice, and like to think most of it has turned out well. Get at me with any questions or comments, I love to hear back from friends and enemies alike.
love it! gotta try one
You sound like a douche. A real douche , American douche not the Canadian type of douche.
Real men drink their whiskey over ice and that’s it, stop writing about being a real man!
Real men are not afraid of trying new things, stop pretending being a real man… LoL
Len,
Sir, you are ill-informed. “Real” men such as Harry Craddock and The Professor Jerry Thomas were mixing their whiskeys with all kinds of liquors, syrups, cordials, bitters, herbs, tinctures, sodas, fruits and vegetables over two centurys ago. Pick up a copy of Imbibe by David Wondrich and after reading it tell me if you still think “real” men drink their whiskey only on the rocks.
Also, it seems your assertion is that “real” men need not fancy ingredients and other bullshit to be satisfied. A glass of hard whiskey on ice is all that a tough, “real” man needs. Well, even in that simple assumption you’ve proven how ineptly qualified you are to be giving advice on this subject. For you see, sir, if you were the “real” man that you claim to be, a purist, who can handle the taste, even enjoy the taste of straight whiskey then you should be drinking it as such: straight. A spirit purist/enthusiast would say that putting ice in a fine whiskey, rye, bourbon, scotch, cognac, brandy, rum, tequila, mezcal, or amaro is a damnable offense in the eyes of God.
Cocktailans such as myself find a way to strattle the line. Sure, some spirits are great to drink neat sometimes, but all spirits are meant to be mixed with others. Whiskey cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, boulvedere, whiskey sour, and Sazerac have been around for centuries and are still popular today. George Washington had his own egg nog recipe and was known for having a sweet tooth. Are you going to tell me that George Washington, father of pur country, wasn’t a “real” man?
Sir, I mean this with all due respect, before you decide to comment again, do a little research. And drink a Vieux Carre!
This is the best whiskey sour I’ve ever had. Took me 10 minutes though. I’m slow but intense.
The shaking the heck out of the drink is for “real men” not pretenders….
Straight whiskey is always great too. But the babes love this whiskey sour.
Leonardo
Isnt rye whiskey by default Canadian? (as your other article says, only Alberta Premium is 100% rye)
No!
Many Canadian whiskeys are called Rye, but that’s only due to a historic naming convention, they’re not actually Rye.
Rye straight needs to be made from at least 51% rye in the mash (among other rules), while most Canadian whiskeys are something like 8-1 wheat to Rye. The only true Rye straight being made seems to be coming out of Kentucky these days. While Alberta Premium is Rye, and 100% Rye from the mash, it’s pretty horrible.
I know that I am late to comment, but I just came across your blog.
This looks like a great recipe and I’ll be sure to give it a whirl, but you’re dead wrong on Alberta Premium. As Canadian naming conventions have allowed for some truly awful swill to be sold as “rye” north of the border, you’d be forgiven for swearing off Canadian rye for life. However, you’d be missing out. Aberta Premium is a fine, complex spirit, which is reflected in the crazy high score of 95 that Jim Murray gives it in his Whisky Bible. Among rye enthusiasts, it is seen as the world’s best. It was also “discovered” by Dave Pickerell (the former master distiller for Maker’s Mark) and is now being imported, bottled and sold in the U.S. under the name WhistlePig Straight Rye for $70 a bottle.
There are some other exceptions to the general rule that “Canadian rye is crap,” but that is the biggest one.
You sound like a shill for AP, if that is true please be up front about that.
Jim Murray called AP the “Canadian Whiskey of the Year”, but since there is not a single other good Canadian Whiskey past Crown Royal, that’s not exactly a strong accolade.
But I’d be willing to visit some of their older vintages for a second look, I’ve been known to be wrong before. Plus I would love to support Canadian distilleries.
But Dave Pickerell is a piece of shit. I say this because he purposely does everything he can to hide the fact that he doesn’t make WhistlePig. His site works VERY hard to try and convince you it’s distilled on his farm in Vermont. Yes, he actually bought a farm to “hand bottle” the spirit. He’s buying AP, moving it to a new bottle, then making people think he made it. He’s a liar, and I will not respect him for it.
Nope… on nobody’s payroll. I’d say the folks at AP would get their asses sued for even hinting that WhistlePig was actually their product. It just sounded to me like you might’ve jumped to conclusions on AP based on other Canadian whiskies as opposed to judging it on its own merit.
As for Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, AP is a standout in general, not just compared to Canadian stuff. The only straight rye that scores higher is Thomas H. Handy Sazerac, and that will set you back $125!
No arguments on Dave Pickerell’s dishonest marketing, though. The front label of WhistlePig mentions Vermont twice and Canada not at all. But seriously, anyone who believes a 2-year-old company can produce a 10-year-old rye deserves to part with their money. I just brought it up to point out that AP is being marketed and consumed as a premium whiskey in the U.S., and the reviews are pretty stellar, too. People tend to like AP once they divorce it from their associations with other Canadian whiskies… and ignore the ugly bottle.
Real men drink black coffee in the morning and Budweiser at night after dinner before passing out on the couch.
Instead of the orange bitters, try making it with two dashes of Angostura bitters!
Angostura bitters are the standard, but since this drink is a sour (citrus based) orange bitters compliment the drink better.
I had this drink made for me by the man himself, Mr.Sean Lind. It was declectible and delightful.. However, it would have been made all the better with a maraschino cherry, but what does this set-o-tits know about being a Real Man?
Xxx
[...] ya go, from the Real Men Drink Whiskey blog, here’s a recipe that uses all fresh ingredients including egg and fresh-squeezed [...]