Ask Your Bartender: Sour Mix in Two Parts
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
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Sour mix is a gateway drug. It can lead you down a very dark path, or it can open up a new world of fresh flavors or ingredients. As proof of this, I submit to you two examples:
One scenario involves the novice bartender using prepackaged mix as a medium for all sorts of vile concoctions. Let’s face it: bland, weak, artificially-flavored sour mix is the vodka of non-alocholic mixers. Add some raspberry to it, it tastes pretty much like raspberry. Add some whiskey and it’s, uh, flavored whiskey. I guess.
But this other path is one that I’ve been asked a lot about lately, and is the subject of this article: how do you make and properly apply fresh sour mix to cocktails?
Hey Bartender
I have a simple question. Why is it that 90% of the time when I order a whiskey sour I get a giant glass of Country Time Lemonade with a shot of Jack Daniels in it? Or worse, Squirt with some Black Velvet? Sour mix is just lemon and sugar right? I don’t understand why this is such a hard drink to get made correctly. Maybe it’s because I live in Nebraska.
Charles
Hey Bartender
I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time now (since well before the layout changed) so I’ve come to learn through and through that you despise pretty much any premixed cocktail mixers; Sour Mix, Bloody Mary Mix, etc… there are places online that offer ways to make “homemade” sour mix etc… but seeing as I haven’t developed with them one of those creepy checking-their-blog-for-updates-everyday thing that I have with your blog, I thought I would ask your advice on making homemade equivelents. For example, a good whisky sour from scratch, or even just simple syrup.
How do you personally prepare these cocktail mixers ahead of time on the job or on a drink-to-drink basis at home?
Anyways, thanks for the good reading.
Mark
Hey Guys
First of all, it’s not just Nebraska, it’s everywhere. The reason you’re getting something that tastes like Country Time Lemonade is because that’s pretty much what bottled sour mix is. Bars in this country use bottled sour mix for a variety of reasons:
- It’s cheap.
- It never spoils.
- It doesn’t require any preparation time.
- Nobody remembers how to do it the right way.
- It tastes delicious.
Just kidding. It actually tastes like shit.
So the question is, how do we do it the right way? Well, first I want you to make yourself some simple syrup. That’s right, one part hot water, one part sugar. Stir it until it’s clear, put it in a nice-looking bottle, and away you go.
Now get yourself some sort of juicer, any kind. There are hand juicers, motorized juicers, attachments for your KitchenAid, crank/press juicers, just about every imaginable method for extracting juice from a piece of fruit awaits you at your local MegaMall. Just make sure you pick up a little strainer, too, because bits of pulp in your drink are a big no-no.
With your new juicer, that bottle of simple syrup, and a bag of lemons at your side, you’re just about ready to go. Squeeze and strain that lemon juice into a pretty bottle and meet me back here when you’re done.
I’m going to show you how to make a whiskey sour today, but you can substitute any primary liquor for the bourbon. Yes, even Midori. I guess.
There are a lot of conflicting whiskey sour recipes on the internet right now. Most will tell you to use one part lemon juice to one part simple syrup. That’s pretty standard but it’s a little sweet for me and I think bourbon is sweet enough already, so here’s my whiskey sour recipe:
Whiskey Sour
2 oz bourbon
1 oz fresh lemon juice
.75 oz simple syrupShake ingredients with ice and strain over fresh rocks in a short 8 oz glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge.
That’s it! Just remember: as with any recipe you’ll find, it’s open to interpretation. If this one’s too sour for you, just add a little more syrup.
Now, what about a more versatile “sour mix” that you can make in larger quantities and use in place of Country Time Lemonade?
Sour Mix
2 parts simple syrup
2 parts lemon juice
1 part lime juice
Make as much, or as little, as you want. Bottle it and use it anywhere, in place of the crap you find at the supermarket. Want a whiskey sour? 2 ounces whiskey, 2 ounces sour mix, on the rocks. Margarita? 2 ounces tequila, 1 ounce triple sec, 2 ounces sour mix. Pisco sour? 2 ounces pisco, 2 ounces sour mix, .5 ounces egg white. Enjoy, baby.
Now that you know how easy it is to make your own freshly-squeezed cocktails, maybe you’ll start demanding more from the bars you frequent. Tell them how easy it is and maybe we can all be on our way down a brighter path.
17 May 2007 at 6:33 pm 1. Dan
Great post, Jeff, and I’ve got a lovely relevant story to tell…
I was at a bar the other night with a few friends and this particular bar, for some reason, has a huge collection of…board games. I challenged a friend to a game of Battleship and loser bought the winner a drink. Well, I lost and I owed her a drink. So, I asked her what she would like and she replied, “a tom collins, please.”
My beer was getting a little low, anyways, so I went up to one of the bartenders and asked for another guinness and a tom collins. This is where it goes to hell.
The bartender grabs a highball glass and fills it with ice. He then proceeds to pour barely an ounce of gin directly into the glass, and follows it up with a *disgusting* amount of bottled sour mix. He then added a splash of soda and garnished with a cherry. I did not accept the drink and asked him for something else which was made all right…
By the way, I use the same whiskey sour recipe at home. They go down a bit too easy…
17 May 2007 at 11:00 pm 2. Mark
This is excellent, I’m going to try it tonight. Thanks for the help.
18 May 2007 at 2:47 am 3. Jeffrey
Stay tuned for the collins episode… I’ll write more soon, I promise!
18 May 2007 at 5:41 am 4. Chuck P.
Perfect Jeff! There will be at least one (or 3) decent whiskey sours imbibed tonight in Nebraska! Your advice is always appreciated.
CP
18 May 2007 at 7:27 am 5. Jimmy
Sounds good Jeffrey. Do you make fresh mix every time, or do you keep it?
18 May 2007 at 8:17 am 6. Jeffrey
I don’t actually use mix at my bar, Jimmy, I make every drink to order. However, I don’t see a problem with making a quart of mix before service each night…
18 May 2007 at 3:38 pm 7. Dominik MJ
Hm - still I don’t see a point to prepare sweet & sour mix - it is quite too easy to use fresh lemon or lime juice and simple syrup (normally I use for kind of European & American drinks more lemon and for Latin American and Caribbean drinks more often lime).
Even I don’t use self made simple syrup, as I use (bought) gomme syrup - this is simple syrup with added gum arabica (the mouth feel is great and the heads of the drinks are more steady)!
For my sours, fizzes and collinses I even use less syrup, (ratio 4-2-1) which I think is better working for me!
But… Margaritas I only drink with just Tequila (personally I prefer a 100% agave tequila), fresh lime juice and Cointreau. No prepared sweet and sour mix and no cheap triple sec curaçao…
19 May 2007 at 8:31 am 8. Dan
I think Margaritas taste fantastic with a splash of both lemon juice and simple syrup.
21 May 2007 at 8:51 am 9. B
Long time lurker with a quick comment.
I’d been agonizing for months over how to keep my simple syrup (and, btw, I use 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, just personal preference), and with no “container store” near me and “kitchen stores” wanting crazy amounts of money for squeeze bottles, I was using small tupperware containers. These got very messy after two or three uses, and it looked like I had some kind of kinky syrup fight in the kitchen whenever I used it.
I found what I wanted at a dollar store, of all places. Cheap, overseas-manufactured ketchup and mustard squirters. 2 to the package for $1, they even have a little cap for the nozzle. Perfect for syrup, lemon juice, lime juice, whatever, even a peanut butter sauce I made for brownies.
23 May 2007 at 11:03 am 10. Angie
Have you ever heard of a “Solarita”? I had one at a Mexican restaurant in Atlanta - very refreshing! They put what they called ‘lime sour’ in a salt-rimmed tumbler over the rocks, then you pour a bottle of Sol beer over it. Incredibly good. I understand you can do the same with Corona.
BUT - my question is - what exactly is the proportion to make it LIME sour, instead of just SOUR? It did look slightly green, so it just has to be in the proportion, right?
Thanks for your thoughts.
30 May 2007 at 9:07 am 11. Jeffrey
Angie, the drink you describe is sometimes called a “Cubana” in Mexico - sort of a mild cousin of the Michelada using fresh lime juice, ice, salt and beer.
But the sour mix is sort of a beer margarita, a trend that’s becoming more popular here. I’ve even had people asking me for them at work, as they’re a much lighter version of a hard-alcohol margarita.
As far as a lime sour mix is concerned, just try reversing the proportions of lemon and lime in my recipe and let me know how it goes!
02 Nov 2007 at 11:38 pm 12. Jack
Another lurker of the cocktail blogosphere rears his head…
Jeffrey, I’ve always made my own cocktails with fresh juices and simple syrup so that I can adjust the ratio of sweet to sour. But now I’m contemplating actually trying my hand behind the stick in a professional environment; should I ever find myself having to use sour mix, will I need to reformulate every drink in my repertoire?
And what about drinks that call for triple sec or maraschino to counterbalance a sour ingredient? How can bars that rely on sour mix make margaritas, sidecars, aviations, and so forth?
04 Nov 2007 at 11:30 pm 13. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Jack
Yes, you will either have to reformulate all of your recipes, or just not make those drinks altogether. There’s just no substitute for fresh ingredients. You can’t make a Sidecar with sour mix.
However, what about slowly convincing your employers to incorporate fresh-juice cocktails into their business?
05 Nov 2007 at 12:21 am 14. Jack
That’d be sweet. Or sour. Hah!
Of course, convincing the ol’ employers to do things Jack’s way would be ideal, but cocktail knowledge nonwithstanding, I doubt my own ability to waltz onto a job with no prior professional experience and start changing how things get done. And from one perspective, that’s totally righteous. I mean, so I can make a bitchin’ Mai Tai off the top of my head. Doesn’t mean I know anything about the restaurant business, other than what those Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Jamie Boudreau blokes tell me via the interwebs.
I could do it. But it’d take awhile, and in the meantime… I don’t even comprehend how you could bartend with mix! Kamikaze. Easy, common drink at high-volume establishments (or so I hear). Something like 3:2:1 vodka, triple sec, lime juice. Sub sour mix and you’ve got to either eliminate the triple sec (becomes a crummy Lemon/Lime Drop) or serve the Kamikaze way too sweet. Have you ever worked at a bar with sour mix? Do you have any idea what such places do in similar situations? My curiosity is piqued. I’ve never ordered a sour anywhere that uses mix, and I’ve not the desire (nor the cash) to go out and experiment. What the hell are people actually consuming when they order a Kamikaze at a lousy bar?
05 Nov 2007 at 3:21 pm 15. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
It’s true, if you listened to me or Boudreau, you’d be lighting the place on fire, so don’t take our advice. Well, listen to Jamie, just don’t take any of my advice.
I always used Rose’s Lime Juice in a Kamikaze when I worked in clubs (oh yes, I’ve worked at plenty of bars that used sour mix), and I don’t think it tasted that bad. After all, it’s just a vodka gimlet with triple sec, right?
Then again, if you make a Kamikaze with fresh juice you’re essentially making a vodka Margarita, am I right?
You sound like you’re just getting started in the business, so my advice is to keep your mouth shut for a little while and learn how they want you to do things at the bar you’re working in. As you become a more experienced bartender you’ll find yourself in a position to make changes and recommendations - and be taken seriously for them.
As a bar manager, I cringe at the thought of someone telling me how to run my bar based on something they read in a couple of blogs. So put your head down and get to work, Jack!
23 Dec 2007 at 10:23 am 16. David
I was at a hotel bar one night (away at training and killing time) drinking whiskey sours. After the second lemon-lime soda and whiskey, I asked the bartender to microwave 2 oz of water with 2 oz of sugar. Once done I had her add 2 oz of lemon juice and 2 oz of whiskey and pour over ice… finally, a decent drink! After repeating this a few more times, she tried one for herself and was dumb founded at how much better it was.
Yup, the sugar/juice ratio is left much to taste, but the fact remains that bar made sour mix or lemon-lime soda is NO substitute.
30 Jan 2008 at 10:56 am 17. TOMMY@SHEP
WHAT IS THE BEST BOTTLED SIMPLE SYRUP? THINKING OF USING IT FOR CAPARINHA’S.THANK YOU.
30 Jan 2008 at 12:34 pm 18. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Gee, I don’t know, Tommy, I’ve never used bottled simple syrup.
Why don’t you just take A CUP OF SUGAR AND MIX IT WITH A CUP OF BOILING WATER?
It’s going to be much cheaper than bottled simple syrup, and probably taste a lot better.
Jeff
16 Mar 2008 at 10:29 am 19. scott in the LBC
Just wondering, Jeff, how long simple syrup can keep in a refrigerator. If I were making it at home, it wouldn’t matter because it’s so easy to make. But, I want to convince my bar to start stocking it. They can’t make it there (no kitchen), but the owner also owns a restaurant across the street…
17 Mar 2008 at 10:00 am 20. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Oh, I would imagine it would last a week or so without spoiling. Make it in big one-gallon batches and truck it across the street.