How to Make the Tequila Sour Recipe of Your Dreams

The Whiskey Sour is king of the sours, but what happens when you make it with tequila?...

Tequila and lime are an incredible pair, if you've ever had a cocktail before you probably know that.

But you can take that combination to a whole new level by making a classic sour cocktail with the addition of egg white.

Yes, egg whites in your cocktail, it's good.

The Tequila Sour ingredients

The Tequila Sour is made with: 

• Tequila (obviously)
• Lemon/lime juice (either or both)
• Simple syrup
• Egg white
• Bitters

Both lemon and lime work for this drink and I like making it with half of each, but either one on its own is also great.

If you want some more background flavor you can also sweeten the drink with agave instead of simple syrup but you will have to tweak the recipe (more on that below).

Tequila Sour recipe

A Tequila Sour is delicious with the standard sour style ratio of: 2 oz tequila, 1 oz lemon/lime juice, 3/4 oz simple syrup, one egg white and a few dashes of bitters.

That ratio (2 parts booze, 1 part sour, 3/4 part sweet) is the backbone of so many classics and it works beautifully here too.

NOTE: If you choose to sweeten with agave do not substitute agave nectar 1:1 for simple syrup, it will make it too sweet.

For this recipe you can use 2 teaspoons of agave nectar in place of the 3/4 oz of simple syrup. Agave nectar is sweeter than sugar so we need a little less than the amount of sugar that would be in the 3/4 oz of simple syrup.

Tequila Sour vs. margarita

The Margarita and Tequila Sour both have tequila, lime juice, and a sweetener. The difference is that a Margarita is sweetened with an orange liqueur while the Tequila Sour is sweetened with simple syrup and also uses egg white for texture.

try using reposado tequila

To make a Tequila Sour that's a little closer to its more popular cousin the Whiskey Sour, try swapping out the blanco tequila for reposado.

Reposado tequila is barrel aged for up to a year giving it a more round and mellow flavor with some darker spice notes that you might find in whiskey.

How to make a Tequila Sour

Crack and separate the egg white into your cocktail shaker first. 

If you get any shells or egg yolk in the shaker you'll have to dump it out and try again and you don't want to waste all the other ingredients if they are already in there! 

Add the rest of the ingredients and dry shake without ice. Then shake again with ice and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Don't skip the dry shake!

The dry shake is key

The purpose of adding egg whites to a drink is to get a smooth velvety texture, but that doesn't happen unless you whip lots of air into it.

A standard 10 second cocktail shake isn't enough to get that nice silky texture we're after. It needs a good hard 20 second shake, but, if there's ice in there it will get too diluted....

So, we dry shake.

Dry shaking just means shaking the ingredients together without ice for about 20 seconds to get that creamy smooth texture. Then you add ice, shake again for 10 seconds to chill and dilute before serving.

tequila sour without egg

You can definitely make your tequila sour egg free, just add all the ingredients to your shaker like any other cocktail and skip the dry shake. The egg white is only there to add creaminess but it will still taste great without it.

make a cinnamon tequila sour

Cinnamon goes great with tequila and you can try adding it in a few different ways.

You could use a couple dashes of cinnamon bitters, try cinnamon syrup instead of regular simple syrup, or infuse your tequila with cinnamon for a little while before making the drink. Make it once and then experiment.

Some more deliciousness:

Try this crazy bitters sour cocktail

Make another tequila drink, the Mexican Firing Squad

The Margarita's smoky cousin

Make a summer rum cocktail, Wray & Ting

Share!

If you've never tried an egg white cocktail it might sound weird, but you just might love the velvety texture.