National Whiskey Sour Day

In honor of National Whiskey Sour Day – observed annually on August 25 – the masterful F&B team at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club have shared their recipe for a Blackberry Whiskey Sour.

The first official reference to a Whiskey Sour was in the 1862 The Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas, but there’s come contention about who actually invented the cocktail. It is commonly thought that sailors had been drinking some version of a Whiskey Sour long before it’s official introduction due to its use of lemon (AKA vitamin C). And we can’t think of a more pleasant way to ward off scurvies.

All Burbon Is Whiskey But Not All Whiskey Is Burbon

More than a dozen variations of whiskey exist around the world, and each are made by distilling various combinations of malted/fermented grain – barley, rye, corn or wheat – and then aging the spirit in wooden barrels. Burbon is a type of whiskey, made from at least 51% corn, that is specifically produced in the United States. A vast majority comes from Kentucky but that’s not a requirement for the libation to be dubbed bourbon. Other than its country of origin, what sets bourbon apart is that it must be aged for a minimum of two years, in new charred oak barrels. This produces a deeper, more smokey flavor than a standard whiskey. While the barrels can only be used to age bourbon once, they are often reused for aging their whiskey cousins, everything from Canadian rye to single malt scotch can be found in reused bourbon barrels.

Blackberry Whiskey Sour

Ingredients:

2 oz       Burbon

.75 oz    Blackberry Liqueur

.75 oz    Lemon juice

.75 oz    Simple Syrup

1 egg white

Blackberries and mint for garnish

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with a spiral ball and shake variously until mixture is foamy. Remove the spiral ball, add ice and shake again. Pour chilled mixture into a glass – our team likes to use a coup glass but a rocks glass would also work – and garnish. Serve up, no ice.

Share a picture of your National Whiskey Sour Day celebration on social, @superstitionmountaingolf on Facebook and @superstitionmountaincc on Instagram, and be sure to use the holiday’s official hashtag: #NationalWhiskeySourDay.

And a final fun fact – both whiskey and whisky are correct spellings. Irish and American producers tend to use an “e” while the Canadian, Scottish and Japanese varietals go with whisky.