In Search of the Ultimate Whiskey Sour

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Cocktail Vlog. 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 a 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 prevail. The first one comes from Neil 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 gonna 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. It's 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. 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. Pretty sure, I didn't actually write it down but I'm pretty sure it said shake 20 times. 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 missed them. And then garnish with a slice of orange and a maraschino cherry. There's 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 Eric 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. 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 white, 15 mil, half an ounce. And again, dry shake and add five, four cubes. Very specific, four ice cubes and wet shake. Straight into a chilled glass and double strain. And there you have Eric 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. Kind of subdues the whiskey because it's got that higher acid profile. I actually think I prefer the first one. I like that tiny little bit more of sugar and the aromas for 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 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. 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 whites, 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, then it's actually easier to pour and kind of separate. Otherwise, if you don't do that, the whole thing's just gonna, just dump into your jigger. So 15 mil of egg white, and then dry shake. 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. Also doesn't call for a double strain, so just straining over fresh ice, into an old-fashioned glass. 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. That's really good, that's... 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 some more kick from the 100-proof whiskey. Little bit of sort of 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, Neil Bodenheimer's Whiskey Sour, which was a little bit sweeter. Bourbon-based 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 Eric 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. 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've got this underlying spiciness from the rye whiskey. You've 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 them to clear my palate. Drinking a whiskey sour. I can understand where the panelists are coming from. A little bit more complexity, whether 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 love whiskey cocktails, make sure you check out the whiskey cocktail playlist up here. And question of the day I had by, I don't even know who it was. And question of the day from Wilson Co. 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. 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. In 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.