I often make whiskey sours when I have friends over. I’ve been using Canadian Club, but I’d like to try other brands. I always make the drinks with fresh lemon juice, not sour mix.
Any recommendations?
If you’re mixing it, don’t bother with expensive stuff. CC should be just fine.
Back in the late ‘60s, my parents and grandparents always kicked back before Sunday dinner with a few whisky sours. My old man put one of those 6 oz cans of concentrated lemonade in the blender, then added Canadian Club. It’s a sweet, mild whisky…easy drankin’ for the old ladies.
As a grown up, I indulge in the occasional whiskey sour, made with bourbon, fresh lemon juice, and sugar. It was Philip Marlowe’s go-to drink in Farewell, My Lovely.
(Notice how I observed the proper spellings of “whisky” and “whiskey” for Canadian and U.S. booze. I think I deserve a whiskey sour for that)
Like snfaulkner says, don’t use your fifty dollar sippin’ whiskey when you’re mixing sugar and lemon into it. I like Heaven Hill, which is remarkably fine for a bourbon that retails for a buck or two less per litre than Jim Beam.
I don’t make them regularly but I’ve used bourbon as often as not. My recommendation is Jim Beam Bottled in Bond. It sets you back a few bucks more ($22.99 as of Friday) but without the relative harshness I associate with the regular Jim and higher octane at 100 proof. I don’t add the fruit in my own but a lot of people will expect it. A shake of bitters on the floating white is nice, though.
I’ll third that suggestion. You want something decent and not total rotgut, but you don’t want to spend money on any nuances gained through aging, since the added flavor from the lemon and sugar will render them much harder to detect.
My vote would be plain old black label Evan Williams. Good solid bourbon, but not expensive.
(fun fact- the various Evan Williams and Elijah Craig whiskies are all mashed and distilled together; i.e. they come off the still into barrels. One barrel off a particular distilling run may end up as Elijah Craig 18, while the very next barrel may end up as plain old Evan Williams. Totally depends on where they’re aged and for how long in the rickhouse.)
+1
Use the cheapest bourbon or Canadian you would drink straight. There are no nuances in a sour.
This.
I love Jim Beam and Crown Royal but if I’m making a mixer (with the exception of an Old Fashioned) I’ll use the cheapest stuff available. Fleischmanns, Kesslers, Thompsons, Guckenheimer, etc… Except Early Times. I don’t care much for that.
The only thing Early Times or Ancient Age are good for is making cherrybim, or bourboned cherries.
This really goes for nearly any cocktail or mixed drink, truth be told. Mixing it with bitters and sweet vermouth does the same thing in a Manhattan, mixing it with sugar, bitters and absinthe does it for rye in a Sazerac, and so on.
This is true of most (all?) families of bourbon. Take a look at the ever awesome GQ bourbon family tree:
Working my way up all those trees (skipping the white/moon/clear stumps). 
If you can’t tell the difference between a sazerac made with Michter’s single barrel rye and one with the cheap stuff, you shouldn’t ever buy the good stuff again. Or you’re putting in too much bitters? I dunno - there’s a dramatic difference. (Now, a mixed drink like a sour - don’t sweat it.)
Agree. I genuinely believe that in a spirit-forward drink like a Sazerac, the quality of the base whiskey makes a huge difference. I could probably agree that a sour doesn’t matter as much as long as you’re not using truly bottom shelf stuff or some of the truly strange craft whiskeys I’ve tasted. Those can definitely add off notes that can be detected despite all the other ingredients.
Interesting graphic. Question: How come the Willett tree is shown as a stump? Being unfamiliar with them, I looked them up. Wiki says they actually didn’t distill anything from the early eighties to 2012, either bringing out barrels that had been laid down before the hiatus or bottling other distillers’ output. Was your tree chart drawn up during that period?
Not being one much for cocktails, I decided to try my first Old Fashioned ever at the local track on Belmont day last Saturday after being assured by the waitress that the bartender “knows her stuff.” A couple minutes later she was back, asking, “Crown Royal or Maker’s Mark?” Ordinarily I would have followed snfaulkner’s advice but being my first, and a couple bucks more or less would be inconsequential in that day’s eating, drinking, and gambling, I went for the latter. It was go-o-o-d.
Here is the article that goes with the chart:
It appears it came out in 2013.
An old fashioned with Crown Royal? That is not very old fashioned. :smack: You picked the correct option.
FYI for anyone in Kentucky – Trader Joe’s bourbon is actually made by Buffalo Trace. I tried it and it’s pretty good.
Consider that even with Willett re-starting in 2012, they wouldn’t have any aged product for sale for at least a couple of years. I think (but wouldn’t bet much money on this) that they didn’t release their own product until 2015.
Right at the tail end of the hiatus, then.
Yeah, I did wonder why the well bourbon wasn’t JD or Jim Beam or something, but like I said, I wasn’t going to quibble for a couple dollars. It was $7.50 anyway, a mere blip in the final tab.
Last night I had a whiskey sour at Corvina Wine Company. Been there a lot times.
They made it with Buffalo Trace bourbon and some kind of lime-cucumber syrup.
It sucked the sweat off a dead mans balls! Worst Whiskey sour I have ever had, and I’m going to be 57 soon.
This should not dissuade you from going there. It’s actually a very nice, low lit place with a great selection of wine and local micro-brewery beer. But expensive. And in an odd location for their prices (lower middle class neighborhood). But that whiskey sour did suck. Can’t win them all, Corvina. Still love the place.
-Pete Beitz
I realize several things I posted there seem contradictory, but life itself is contradictory. If you’re in the west part of Milwaukee County, check it out and judge for yourself.