Raise a Glass: Celebrate National Whisky Sour Day with Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky
National Whisky Sour Day falls on 25th August, inviting cocktail enthusiasts across the globe to celebrate one of the great classic whisky cocktails. For English whisky lovers looking to mark the occasion, there is no better choice than Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky, produced by the Cotswolds Distillery and the best selling English single malt whisky in the UK.
The Perfect Whisky Sour
This classic cocktail is simple to make at home and shows off the whisky’s character beautifully. Here is the recipe:
* 60ml Cotswolds Signature Single Malt Whisky
* 25ml fresh lemon juice
* 20ml sugar syrup
* 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
* ½ egg white
Dry shake all the ingredients, then add ice to the shaker and shake again. Fine strain and serve into a chilled old fashioned glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel and a maraschino cherry.
About Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky
Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky was launched in October 2017 and was the first whisky ever distilled in the Cotswolds. It is crafted using the finest, locally grown Cotswolds barley and matured in a combination of highly active STR (Shaved, Toasted and Re-charred) ex-red wine casks and premium first fill ex-Bourbon barrels. The result is a single malt that is rich, fruity and sippable, with notes of honey, Seville orange marmalade and dark red fruits.
RRP £46.00 for 70cl.
ABV 46%.
Where to Buy
Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky is available from Cotswolds Distillery, Master of Malt, Drink Supermarket and Amazon.
A Cocktail with a Long History
The Whisky Sour is one of the oldest cocktail styles still enjoyed today, with roots that stretch back further than most drinkers realise. Sour style drinks are thought to descend from the punches and grogs favoured by the British Navy, when sailors mixed their spirit rations with citrus juice to help stave off scurvy on long voyages. Rum was the sailors’ spirit of choice, readily available and hardy enough to survive months at sea, and lime or lemon juice was added both to make the ration more palatable and to protect against vitamin C deficiency. That simple pairing of spirit, citrus and a touch of sweetness eventually made its way ashore with returning sailors and evolved into the sours enjoyed in American saloons through the nineteenth century.
The first written recipe for a sour cocktail appeared in Jerry Thomas’s landmark 1862 book The Bartender’s Guide, widely regarded as the first cocktail book ever published, and included recipes for a Brandy Sour, a Gin Sour and a rum based Santa Cruz Sour. It was not until 1870, however, in the pages of a Wisconsin newspaper called the Waukesha Plain Dealer, that the Whisky Sour was mentioned by name for the first time, using the British spelling. From there the drink grew steadily in popularity through the following decades and proved one of the most enduring of all the sour cocktails, thriving even through the Prohibition era in America when many classic recipes fell out of fashion or were reinvented with whatever spirit could be found.
Along the way the Whisky Sour also inspired variations that have become classics in their own right. The best known is the New York Sour, created in Chicago bars during the 1880s by floating a splash of red wine over the top of the finished drink, adding both a rich tannic flavour and a striking two toned appearance. Despite the name, food and drink historians agree the twist almost certainly began in Chicago rather than New York, though it was in New York that the style caught on and eventually took its now familiar name. Elsewhere the drink picked up other regional identities over the years, including the Southern Whiskey Sour and the Claret Snap, and more recently the Boston Sour, which adds egg white for a silky, foamed texture without the wine float.
It is this rich and enduring history, spanning more than a century and a half, that led to the Whisky Sour being given its own annual celebration, National Whisky Sour Day, marked every year on 25th August.
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Whisky or Whiskey?
Keen eyed readers may notice the spelling varies. Both words describe the same spirit and come from the Gaelic uisge beatha, meaning water of life, but the spelling depends on where the whisky is made. Scotland, Canada, Japan, and England and Wales, including English producers such as the Cotswolds Distillery, use the traditional spelling whisky, without an e. Ireland and the United States, by contrast, use whiskey, with an e, a distinction believed to date back to the nineteenth century when Irish distillers began adding the extra letter to set their whiskey apart from lower quality Scotch of the period. As Irish emigrants settled in America in large numbers, the whiskey spelling travelled with them and became the standard across the United States, where it remains today.
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10 Things You Might Not Know About the Whisky Sour
* The Whisky Sour belongs to the Sour family of cocktails, thought to descend from the punches and grogs first mixed by sailors in the British Navy.
* The earliest written sour recipes appeared in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book The Bartender’s Guide, widely considered the first cocktail book ever published.
* The name Whisky Sour was not recorded in print until 1870, in a Wisconsin newspaper called the Waukesha Plain Dealer.
* The original nineteenth century recipe used soda or seltzer water rather than egg white, which became popular only much later.
* Egg white is used purely for texture, giving the drink its signature silky foam. A dry shake, without ice, before the main shake helps build a thicker, more stable foam.
* The famous New York Sour, made by floating red wine on top, is generally believed to have originated in Chicago bars during the 1880s rather than in New York itself.
* Over the years the drink has picked up several regional names, including the Southern Whiskey Sour, the Claret Snap and the Boston Sour.
* The Whisky Sour thrived through the American Prohibition era, remaining one of the most popular and enduring cocktails of the period.
* Whisky and whiskey are the same spirit, but the spelling depends on origin. Scotland, Canada, Japan, and England and Wales use whisky, while Ireland and the United States use whiskey.
* National Whisky Sour Day is celebrated every year on 25th August, marking the drink’s status as one of the most enduring cocktails in the Sour family.
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