4-ingredient recipe: It’s that easy to conjure up a really good cocktail

Underhyped
Is this the best cocktail in the world?

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. A well-made Margherita pizza, for example. Or a slice of fresh bread with high-quality cheese. It’s certainly fun and interesting and exciting to try out unusual things, such as cleverly prepared dishes with tons of different spices and flavors. But who has never thought when taking a bite of a perfectly successful cheese bread (or something similar): Exactly that. There is nothing better.

The situation is similar with cocktails, or we have at least found one case that can represent this phenomenon: the sour is one of the simplest drinks that bartenders have in their repertoire. And one of the tastiest.

Cocktail Family Sour: May we introduce?

Sour cocktails are real classics that are easy to prepare, usually turn out well, can be modified in many ways and can be quite impressive. In addition to a spirit, they usually contain lemon or lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white. The latter was not originally included, at least in the whiskey version, but has now established itself as a relatively permanent and, above all, popular component of a sour. It makes the drink smoother, gives it binding and forms a foam that settles on top of the liquid after pouring, making drinking a more sensual experience. Who would want to do without that? The egg foam can also be used to give the cocktail a special touch, for example with a pinch of cinnamon or a few drops of Angostura bitters, as is usual with a Pisco Sour.

This one, the Pisco Sour, is one of the most famous cocktails in the sour family. Pisco is a grape schnapps that is mainly produced in Chile and Peru and has a rather subtle taste compared to spirits such as rum, whiskey or tequila. If you generally prefer more reserved flavors, you will probably like the Pisco Sour better than the whiskey version.

How to make your own sour

To prepare a sour, a cocktail shaker is an advantage, although another mixer also works. The fixed ones In addition to ice cubes, the ingredients for a sour are, as already mentioned, lemon or lime juice, egg whites and sugar syrup. Egg whites can be bought in many drugstores in sizes that are reasonable for a household, for example at dm. Sugar syrup can either be easily made yourself from sugar and water (for example, boil 500 grams of sugar and 500 milliliters of water together and then simmer over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved) or can be found in many supermarkets. In principle, we can choose the fourth ingredient, the spirit, ourselves: pisco, whiskey, gin, tequila, vodka – whatever we like best and tolerate best. Liqueurs are also a great option: Amaretto, for example, harmonizes wonderfully with the freshness of lemon juice.

The perfect ratio of ingredients is a question of personal taste and depends a little on the spirit used: If you like it sweet, use a little more sugar, if you prefer it sour, don’t skimp on lemon juice, and if you make an amaretto sour, probably needs less sugar than a pisco sour drinker. Using roughly the same amount of all the ingredients on the first try is a good way to get closer to your own preferences – because a sour in this ratio won’t be undrinkable. For a drink that is fresher and doesn’t taste too strongly of alcohol, we can recommend the following ratio:

Mix all the ingredients with the ice cubes and the sour is ready. If you use a shaker, after a few seconds you will feel that foam is forming inside the shaker and the contents feel softer. And for anyone who wants to avoid alcohol or likes the sour so much that they could drink it every day: with non-alcoholic gin or non-alcoholic Amaretto or something similar, it actually tastes even better than the alcoholic versions – and can almost even be used as protein -Drink through.

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Bridget