How do you make a whisky sour?

The International Bartenders Association keeps to a fixed ratio: 45 ml bourbon whiskey, 25 ml fresh lemon juice and 20 ml sugar syrup.

Those three parts make up the whole drink. Everything goes together in a shaker with ice, you shake well and strain the whole into the glass. If you want the drink on ice, you strain it into an old fashioned glass with ice cubes.

Together that is 90 ml of liquid, plus the meltwater from the shaker. So measure the three ingredients and do not pour them by eye, because at these quantities the balance shifts quickly.

The official specification names bourbon whiskey as the base, 45 ml per glass.

Whisky is a protected name in the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2019/787 prescribes in Annex I, category 2 that whisky matures for at least three years in wooden casks of at most 700 litres and contains at least 40 percent alcohol when sold.

That same rule prohibits adding alcohol, sweetening and flavouring. Only plain caramel (E 150a) may go in, and then solely to adjust the colour. The taste in your glass therefore comes entirely from the distillate and the cask.

Egg white is optional. The official specification mentions a few drops and prescribes that you then shake a little harder, so the foam layer forms.

If you use raw egg white, follow the advice of the Voedingscentrum. Pregnant women, young children, older people and people with reduced immunity are better off not eating dishes in which egg stays raw. Dishes with raw egg should be kept for a maximum of 24 hours and always in the fridge.

If you leave out the egg white, the drink stays clear. You only miss the foam head, not the flavour.

A cobbler glass is the glass from the official specification. If you serve the drink over ice, it goes into an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes.

The garnish is also fixed: half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry, optionally supplemented with orange zest.

Chill the glass beforehand. The drink is shaken cold and holds that temperature longer in a cold glass, especially in the variant without ice.

A whisky sour with 45 ml of bourbon at 40 percent contains 18 ml, or about 14 grams of pure alcohol, good for about one and a half standard glasses.

In the Netherlands, the Trimbos-instituut uses a standard glass of about 10 grams of alcohol. For spirits of 35 percent, that comes down to about 35 ml per standard glass. The 45 ml from the official ratio is therefore above that, and a whisky with a higher alcohol percentage counts proportionally heavier.

Lemon juice and sugar syrup make the drink softer in taste, but change nothing about that amount of alcohol. We do not sell spirits to people under 18.

A whisky sour with Scotch whisky follows the same preparation and the same proportions as the official version with bourbon.

Scotch has its own rules. The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 require maturation of at least three years in oak casks of at most 700 litres and an alcohol percentage of at least 40 percent. Every Scotch therefore meets the lower limit that the sour needs.

Which bottle shows itself off best in your glass depends on what you like. Come by the shop on the Brink or just give us a call.