Sour

Browse through our collection of Sour Cocktail Recipes and find your favorite.

Sours are cocktails that have citrus as a central element. They consist of a base spirit, citrus juice, and sugar. The citrus is typically lime or lemon, but some sours have grapefruit or orange as their citrus component. The sugar component can come from either sugar syrup or a liqueur, which determines what sour subcategory the cocktail belongs to: Simple Sour or Complex Sour.

Simples Sours have sugar syrup as their sweetener. The syrup can be flavored, but many of the classic Simple Sours use Simple Syrup. Some of the most iconic Cocktails in this subcategory are Whiskey Sour and Daiquiri.

Complex Sours have a liqueur or a mix of syrup and liqueur as their sweetener. Some of the notable classic Complex Sour Cocktails are Margarita, Cosmopolitan and Clover Club.

Another typical ingredient found in many sours is Egg White. Egg White creates the iconic foam found on many classic sour cocktails. The foam creates a creamy texture and the protein in the egg whites helps round off the acidity from the citrus, giving it a less sharp and more mellow expression.

To see recipes from other cocktail categories, go to our Cocktail Recipe Overview.