Autumn Sour
Bourbon, lemon, maple and a spoon of reduced apple cider, shaken with egg white and dusted with cinnamon. The whiskey sour in October — apple, maple and spice under a silky foam.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Add the bourbon, lemon juice, maple syrup, cider syrup and egg white to a shaker.
Dry shake without ice for 10 seconds to build the foam.
Add ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.
Double strain into a chilled coupe and grate cinnamon over the foam.
A thoughtful finish
- Reduce real cider for the syrup; juice from concentrate is flat.
- Dry shake first; the foam is the texture.
- A dash of Angostura on the foam alongside the cinnamon.
Common mistakes
- Pancake syrup.
- Unreduced cider, which waters it down.
- Skipping the dry shake.
A few good questions.
What does an Autumn Sour taste like?
A Whiskey Sour with maple and apple under a cinnamon-dusted foam — tart, rich and seasonal.
How do I make cider syrup?
Simmer fresh apple cider until it reduces by three-quarters.
Can I skip the egg?
Yes; it is then a sharper maple-apple sour.
Rye or bourbon?
Bourbon; rye is drier and also good.
Variations
- Whiskey Sour — Bourbon, lemon, sugar and egg white.
- Maple Leaf — Bourbon, lemon and maple.
- Cider House Old Fashioned — Bourbon, cider syrup and bitters.
- New York Sour — Whiskey sour with a red wine float.
Where it comes from
c. 2010s · United States
The Whiskey Sour’s sugar can be anything, and the Autumn Sour is what American bars made of it every October through the 2010s: bourbon with lemon, maple syrup for sweetness, a spoon of boiled-down apple cider for fruit, and an egg white for the foam, dusted with cinnamon. It appears under this name and as a Fall Sour, a Maple Apple Sour and a Harvest Sour on seasonal menus, and the formula is more a template than a recipe — the sweetener and the fruit change with the month. Maple and apple are both acidic enough to keep the lemon company, and the cinnamon on the foam is what makes it smell of the season.
Sources
- Difford's Guide, Autumn Sour, 2016 (reference)
- Liquor.com, Fall Whiskey Sour, 2020 (reference)
- Punch, Seasonal Sours, 2018 (reference)
Strength. About 1.5 US standard drinks at an estimated 16% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
A keeper?
Save this drink for your next cocktail hour.
Saved in this browser.The next great drink
might already be on your shelf.
Choose your bottles and mixers. Discover what you can make.