Spirits, sweet, and sour come together in 10 minutes to make a delicious cocktail recipe called a Whiskey Sour with a few simple ingredients.
Jump to RecipeQuite a few years ago, just after Justin and I were married, we went on a Caribbean cruise with some of our best friends. We stood up at their wedding, they stood up in ours. She is half the reason we met. She invited me to frisbee where Justin and I met. Anyway, great friends and we had an amazing time on the cruise. This cruise is where Justin discovered the wonderful drink called a Whiskey Sour.

Our cruise left from Miami and docked in Key West, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. Since we had all been to Key West, we didn’t want to do much of an excursion there. We walked around the island, went to the buoy, ate some Key Lime Pie at the Six-Toed Cat (the best place in Key West to get pie), and did some geocaching.

In Grand Cayman, we split up since we felt relatively safe there. The guys wanted to go snorkeling, and the girls wanted to do a kayak trip. So, we did!
In Jamaica, we did an excursion of zip lining and river tubing. That was my first time on a big zip line and it was fun! We had the craziest bus driver and thought we were going to go over a cliff trying to get there, but it was a great time overall.

Enough about the cruise. You’re here for the drinks! Since we had all four been on Carnival cruises before, we were invited to the Past Guest Reception. This included free drinks! Justin and our friend both ordered a Whiskey Sour and loved the taste. Every time a waiter or waitress would come around with more drinks, they would both get another. We lost count how many they ended up drinking, but it was a lot! Of course, they were small drinks, but they didn’t care.

Recently, we were reminiscing about the cruise and laughing about all the Whiskey Sours they drank. So, of course, Justin decided to make his own at home. It isn’t exactly like the ones from the cruise, as theirs had a bit of foam at the top and ours didn’t. But he said the flavor was the same. (I take his word for it, I only like drinks with rum!)

Whiskey Sour Step by Step
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 oz whiskey
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 1 cherry
Preparation
Start by making a simple syrup. Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved completely.
The drink can be made shaken or stirred. Justin prefers shaken.
Shaken: Pour the whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juice into a shaker. Place the cap on and shake to combine. Pour in a glass over ice and garnish with a cherry.
Stirred: Pour the whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juice into a glass over ice. Stir gently, then add the cherry to garnish.


Recipe
Originally Published On: April 1, 2019
Last Updated On: June 28, 2023

Whiskey Sour Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 oz whiskey
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 1 cherry
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine the water and sugar
- Stir constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 5-10 minutes
- Note: this makes more simple syrup than is needed for one drink, you can use it to serve multiple drinks or refrigerate the extra for up to 4 weeks
- Pour 1 oz of the simple syrup into a shaker with the whiskey and lemon juice
- Shake and pour over ice
- Garnish with a cherry
- Pour 1 oz of the simple syrup into a glass over ice with the whiskey and lemon juice
- Gently stir
- Garnish with a cherry
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutrition content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
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I can’t wait to try this! I am a big fan of all things sour specially during the warmer months! Thank you so much for sharing this great cocktail!
It’s funny how sour just seems to go with summer, drinks like this, lemons and limes, it just works!
Aww, you both look so great together! Loved reading this post 🙂 And also thank you for sharing such a quick cocktail recipe. I am going to ask hubby to make this one for me on our anniversary 😀
Thank you! We always enjoy going on a cruise. Hopefully your husband will make the drinks, they are pretty easy!
You guys look so cute together and the remake of the restaurant drink is commendable but if I am to choose I would go for Justin’s.
Thanks, we had so much fun on the cruise… before any of us had kids! Justin said he prefers the one we make here, too, but the one on the cruise at least gave him the idea!
And now you have me over here about to go research CRUISES!! hahaha! I need one so bad. They’re seriously the best way to travel and… Well, they inspire you to recreate tasty indulgences at HOME 😉
Girl, me too! The school calendar was just released for the upcoming school year and the boys have a week off almost every month so we are trying to plan a family vacation in at least one of the weeks!
This sounds absolutely perfect for drinking on a summer evening whilst relaxing in the garden… will have to try it when the weather improves (which will be soon hopefully!)!
I love whiskey sour’s! I also will sometimes replace the lemon juice with lime juice to change things up a little bit.
Oh, that sounds interesting! I’ll have to tell my husband because he loves lime flavor, too.
That’s easy breezy! My husband loves whiskey cocktails. He would surely love this recipe! Gonna try soon. Although I don’t think he’d like that much sugar.
You could cut down on the sugar a bit if you need to. That’s the great thing about making them yourself, you determine what goes into a recipe.
Looks like a really tasty, simple drink to make at home! We LOVE geocaching too. We recently started doing it with the kids too, which was like introducing them to a real life treasure hunt. 🙂 Looks like a beautiful place to cruise to!
We haven’t been geocaching in a while, but now that my boys are getting older and enjoy hikes we are thinking of picking it up again. For a while, I was making sure to get at least one any time we would travel so I would get the badges for the different states!
I am going to make this drink this weekend. I love all your beautiful pictures, Stephanie.
It’s a great drink for a relaxing weekend. My husband has started doing the photos (he has more patience for it than I do) so I’ll let him know they are appreciated! Enjoy 🙂
Yummm…I can’t wait to try this recipe! We are beer drinkers but recently started drinking Whiskey…I am sure this cocktail will make it a perfect drink for the weekend. 🙂
My husband usually was a beer drinker, too, but recently started drinking whiskey at home. He loves this drink for a relaxing weekend at home.
Yumm! This is such an interesting whiskey-mix cocktail! Ideal for the holidays and a long week!
It’s a perfect drink to relax on the weekends, for sure!
Omg can we say yum?!? This cocktail looks absolutely delicious!!!!! I will definitely be giving it a try next time I have a whiskey craving!
I hope you enjoy the drink! It’s pretty easy to put together.
Oh wow! It looks so refreshing! I love to give a try and I am sure that would be my favorite!
My husband said it is a refreshing drink, it’s one of his favorites!
This is one of my favorite drinks. I really will have to try doing this at home. Very delicious.
Oh perfect! Hopefully, this homemade version is close to the one you already enjoy.