Message 23789 of 39188 in General Discussion

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What I think you are getting at is that you would like to see bartenders pair 
up spirits with their ideal 'sours' partner?

For example, bourbon with passion fruit, tequila with lime, etc, etc.

I agree with you to an extent but a Sours to me is spirit, lemon juice and 
sugar syrup to taste. First off this saves any confusion and 99 times out of 
100, will result in a drink that is, almost, identical to the one they had 
previously. I have no problem if you ask me for a whisky sour with lime 
instead of lemon though.

I suppose the major overlooked factor in this drink is the type of whiske/ey 
used! Bourbon is the most common I find. The addition of vanilla sugar instead 
of regular sugar brings out the vanilla notes of bourbon and works extremely 
well with lemon juice, better than I can imagine it working with lime. Again 
though, this would make it a different drink altogether?!?

As with all drinks where there are guests specifics involved, I try and get as 
much detail from my guest as possible. In the case of a sour, I always ask how 
'sour' they want it. Its amazing how sweet some guests like their Whiskey sour!

In the case of a Sour, maybe we have all taken it for granted and just 
'assumed' that they want lemon juice when some people would care for a touch 
of lime juice/orange juice/etc/etc.

Another example of this is the Strawberry Daiquiri. I find that Raspberry 
partners lime much better than a Strawberry does and virtually every person 
who has taken me up on the offer of a Raspberry Daiquiri has converted to it.

Maybe we all need to 'break from the norm' a bit more and see if we can come 
up with other drinks that bring up as much debate as the Whiskey Sour.

Cheers,

Adam

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Bar Consultancy, Training and Events
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