If you love your Whiskey Sours or Amaretto Sours, here’s a whole list of great sour cocktails to try! It’s one of the oldest cocktail categories, and it’s still here because it’s that good!
If you’re unfamiliar, the category of “sour cocktails” are ones that typically include a sour component along with other ingredients. The sour is usually citrus juice with a sweetener or sour mix. (You can make your own fresh, delicious sour mix if you don’t like the bottled stuff.)
The sour ingredient could be lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange juice. The sweetener could be sugar, simple syrup, honey, agave or a sweet liqueur. The base spirit ranges from whiskey to gin to tequila and then some.
What makes sour cocktails delicious is how they balance sweet and tart flavors, which makes them refreshing. These drinks are perfect for those who enjoy a refreshing and tangy drink that’s not too sweet.
Best Sour Cocktail Recipes
This is my pick for the very best Whiskey Sour cocktail recipe. It uses egg whites, which you probably won't be able to get in any bar, but that's part of what makes it so fantastic.
Learn how to make the Cosmopolitan cocktail at home. This old classic features vodka, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice and more. It’s amazingly refreshing and delicious!
The recipe for an Amaretto Sour is mostly sweet with enough sour to make it interesting. It's a classic cocktail featuring amaretto and lemon juice.
The Cherry Vodka Sour drink recipe has a great sweet-and-sour flavor going on. It you like Whiskey Sours, this is one you should try. It blends the flavors of cherry and citrus.2
The Aviation cocktail uses a touch of one of the lesser known and harder to find liqueurs in the world: creme de violette. It's just what it sounds like - a liqueur that tastes like violets.
The Gin Sour is another cocktail from the sour family, which includes the Whiskey Sour and Amaretto Sour. This is an old school style of cocktail, which means it's really all about the flavor of the liquor.
This drink also bears the distinction of being a good thing to do with cheap whiskey and cheap red wine. You can't say that about many things in life The flavor is similar to that of a traditional whiskey sour, but with the grape from the wine putting a twist on both the tartness and the sweetness.
The Frisco Sour is an old classic. The usual recipe for a sour is your main ingredient + lemon + simple syrup or sugar. But this drink uses Benedictine for sweetening.
The Royal Clover Club Cocktail has a flavor that’s all citrus and berry, but a texture that’s creamy. That’s because it uses an egg yolk which
adds very little flavor, but some definite body.
The Pisco Sour features Pisco brandy, a colorless brandy with wonderful fruity notes. The lime juice adds tartness, and the egg white rounds everything out nicely.
The Tom Collins is a classic cocktail recipe featuring gin, lemon juice and club soda. It's a wonderful refreshing drink that's perfect for summer time and barbecues.
The Blue Long Island is similar to a Long Island Iced Tea, but it features Blue Curacao instead of cola. This gives it a nice orange flavor that's really enjoyable.
When you want champagne, but it doesn't have the kick you want, you can always go for the French 75 cocktail. It's a champagne, gin and lemon drink with kick. Great way to use up leftover champagne.
The classic Gimlet recipe is half gin and half lime juice. The most common recipe uses Rose's (sweetened) Lime Juice, but you can also use real lime juice and simple syrup.
The classic recipe for the White Lady, or Delilah, is basically a Sidecar with gin in place of brandy. But variations on it add other ingredients, which you can experiment with to find out exactly what you prefer.
The Amaretto Stone Sour cocktail mixes amaretto with sour mix and orange juice. The result is sweet, nutty and tart, with the citrus dominating and the sweet nuttiness coming in a close second.
You can't beat a classic margarita for flavor and sheer deliciousness. This combination of lime, orange and tequila has been honed for years. Want to improve it? Just use the very best quality ingredients you can find.
The Daiquiri is a simple classic cocktail recipe featuring rum, lime and simple syrup. It's refreshing and delicious anytime. You can tweak the ingredients ratio to your taste.
The Sidecar cocktail recipe dates back to WWII, if not earlier. It features cognac or brandy with orange liqueur and a little lemon juice. It's a sophisticated drink with a light citrus flavor.
Think 7-up with a kick, and you've got some idea of what the Gin Fizz tastes like. Of course the herb flavor from the gin makes it a little more interesting than that. And speaking of gin, choose a good one - Bombay Sapphire, Hendrick's and Tanqueray Ten are all good choices for a lemon-lime cocktail.
This easy Lemon Drop Martini is a classic cocktail recipe that tastes like lemon candy. It features vodka, lemon juice and sugar, along with a touch of orange liqueur. This is an easy drink to love.
The Limoncello Collins is much like the Tom Collins, but with the addition of Limoncello, a lemon liqueur. That makes the lemon flavor considerably stronger than the gin.
The Pomegranate Martini has a number of variations. They all feature pomegranate juice with vodka or gin, and they are all delicious.
The classic Mojito cocktail blends rum with sugar, mint, lime and carbonated water. It's a tasty, refreshing drink - sort of a carbonated limeade with a kick. Remember