The Best Sour Cocktail Recipes

In the cocktail canon, drinks usually fall into two categories: boozy spirit-forward cocktails and tart sours that are made with lime or lemon juice. Margaritas? They’re a sour cocktail. Lemon Drops? Sours, too. Whiskey sours? The name says it all.

Sours are intensely flavorful and usually quite refreshing. They typically follow the same formula: two parts spirit, one part sour, one part sweet. Sweet and sour mix, a cheat code to delicious drinks, is a 1:1 ratio of lemon juice to simple syrup. (Just please, make your own or buy a high-quality mixer with no artificial ingredients and thank us later.)

The formula is said to have its roots on the high seas, where sailors mixed citrus with alcohol to ward off scurvy. Lately, these drinks have experienced a resurgence with once-forgotten classics like the electric-green Midori Sour finding new audiences.

The possibilities with sour cocktails are endless and can be easily augmented with various infused spirits for added flavor, different types of citrus juice and tinctures or spices for an extra kick.

Below, we rounded up our favorite recipes for sour cocktails to get you started on the journey.

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Made with pisco, a grape-based spirit from Peru and Chile, this cocktail is enjoyed for its silky texture (thanks to egg whites) and puckery sweetness.

Because of its dead-simple recipe of whiskey, sugar and lemon juice, the whiskey sour has remained a beloved bartender staple.

New York Sour with a wine float in a glass — The classic cocktail perfection that is the New York Sour / Getty

A variation on a whiskey sour, this drink is made with Bourbon and features a handsome red wine float.

Latke Sour Cocktail / Photo by Ezra Pollard

The beauty of sour cocktails is their adaptability. Naomi Levy, of Boston’s Eastern Standard Kitchen and Drinks, doctored the recipe with homemade potato syrup and apple brandy to make a cocktail for Hanukkah celebrations.

The secret to balancing the nutty, sweet flavor of Amaretto in this recipe is a high-proof Bourbon.

The 1980s are calling with a reminder of how delicious this radioactive-green cocktail is. This one is for fans of Jolly Rancher candies and extremely photogenic drinks.

If you don’t mind making a little mess, you can’t get much more refreshing of a cocktail than this minty, limey drink.

Cold Boozy LIme Daquiri Cocktail — Getty Images

Drinks that have so few ingredients are actually some of the most difficult to perfect since there’s nowhere for a bad element or mis-measured component to hide. So, consider making the daiquiri—which is rum, lime juice and simple syrup—your next cocktail to perfect.

A Brazilian riff on a daiquiri, the caipirinha is made with cachaça, a sugar-cane based spirit, instead of rum. Try this on a hot summer day.

Gimlet cocktail on grey marble surface with plant in background — Photo by Tyler Zielinski

Bartenders agree that the gimlet, which dates to the 1800s, is one of the all time best cocktails. While some recipes call for Rose’s lime and gin, we’re partial to a recipe that calls for freshly squeezed lime juice.

A Vodka Gimlet cocktail made of lime and gin in high glass on pink table against red background — Stocksy

If you don’t fancy gin, but want to get in on the fun of gimlets, try this version with vodka.

And last, but certainly not least, in our list of sour cocktails is the margarita. Whether frozen or served on the rocks, this tequila-based drink is popular around the world for good reason.