The whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing whiskey (often bourbon), lemon juice, sugar, and optionally, a dash of egg white. It is a type of sour, a mixed drink with a base spirit, citrus juice, and a sweetener.

This article possibly contains original research. (July 2017)

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Whiskey sour

IBA official cocktail
A whiskey sour with ice cubes and a lemon slice
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Whiskey
Served	On the rocks or straight up
Standard garnish	Maraschino cherry and half orange slice
Standard drinkware	Old fashioned glass
IBA specified ingredients†	4.5 cl (3 parts) bourbon whiskey 3 cl (2 parts) fresh lemon juice 1.5 cl (1 part) simple syrup
Preparation	Shake with ice. Strain into chilled glass, garnish and serve.
Commonly served	Before dinner
Notes	If served 'On the rocks', strain ingredients into old-fashioned glass filled with ice.
Whiskey Sour recipe at DrinkBoy IBA

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With egg white included, it is sometimes called a Boston sour; when the whiskey used is a Scotch, it is called a Scotch sour. With a few bar spoons of full-bodied red wine floated on top, it is often referred to as a New York sour. It is shaken and served either straight up or over ice.

The International Bartenders Association recipe includes a garnish of half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.^[1]

A variant of the whiskey sour is the Ward 8, which often is based on bourbon or rye whiskey, and includes both lemon and orange juices, and grenadine syrup as the sweetener. The egg white sometimes employed in other whiskey sours is not usually included.

The oldest historical mention of a whiskey sour was published in the Wisconsin newspaper, Waukesha Plain Dealer, in 1870.^[2][3]

In 1962, the Universidad del Cuyo published a story, citing the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio de Iquique, which indicated that Elliott Stubb created the "whisky sour" in Iquique in 1872, using Limón de Pica for the citrus.^[4][5] (El Comercio de Iquique was published by Modesto Molina between 1874 and 1879.)^{[citation needed]}