The Ingredients you’ll need to make approximately one quart of sour mix are:
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar (the finer the better, and for consistency, stick with the same sugar from batch to batch).
- 2 cups citrus juice
- 2 fresh egg whites* (for frothiness when shaken, but also for richer texture or “mouthfeel” in the mouth).
*NOTE: if you don’t want to use fresh Egg Whites you can substitute Aquafaba (Chickpea juice from the can).
Use the same amount as you would egg white. A typical egg yields 1 oz. of egg white.
A single sour requires about half an ounce of egg white to provide the proper amount of froth. So ½ oz. of Aquafaba per drink will do.
A NOTE ON FRUIT JUICE:
You can squeeze approximately 1 oz of lemon juice from a decent sized lemon, and Âľ oz of lime juice from the average sized lime. When you wash your fruit prior to juicing, drop it in the water and choose the ones that sink to the bottom for juicing.
They sink because of their density which includes their juiciness. Less juicy fruits can be used for decorative garnishes.
For mixing your own “sour mix” the fruit juice portion of the mixture is usually 1 cup of lemon juice and 1 cup of lime juice. So you’ll need about 9 or 10 lemons and 12 or 13 limes to be sure to get a cup of each.
Using one cup of scalding hot water1 from the tea water spigot of the coffee urn (or from the stove if you’re heating it yourself), dissolve one cup of sugar into the hot water (making simple syrup).
Cool the simple syrup mixture in the fridge. When cool, add your two cups of freshly squeezed citrus juice. Though different mixes can be created by using some orange, grapefruit, etc.
Store your simple syrup in the refrigerator at night, and keep a bottle of it in your jockey box (those ice bin containers for storing your fresh cold juices used most frequently while working).
A note on freshness:
Always sample your mixes at the start of each shift. Fresh fruit mixes are best consumed within a day or two. For delicious fresh flavor, freshly squeezed orange juice is best served fresh within four hours, and old to be thrown out after eight hours (or you can drink it yourself).
Site Author, David Jonathan Curtis: David Jonathan Curtis, a seasoned professional in his fifth decade of bartending and bar management, began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in both iconic Midtown clubs and Wall Street bars, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
Footnotes 👇
- Never use hot tap water for making your simple syrup; there are all sorts of built up contaminants caking the interior of the water heater over the decades. They are not healthy to consume.[↩]
