The Whiskey Brands Martha Stewart Uses For Her Famous Whiskey Sour Cocktail

When you're looking for a quintessential whiskey cocktail, you could do far worse than settling on a whiskey sour. The classic cocktail is so simple at its core — little more than whiskey, lemon juice, and sugar (with an egg white if you're so inclined) — that it's no surprise that it's subject to a great deal of variation from one cocktail aficionado to another. Part of this variability is, of course, the whiskey being used. And if you were to ask the one and only Martha Stewart, she might offer up two very popular whiskey brands.

Martha Stewart is no stranger to adoring a plethora of cocktails, and the whiskey sour is no exception. But when it comes to the whiskey she chooses to use, it seems that she keeps it very simple — either Jack Daniel's or Maker's Mark. While her whiskey sour recipe on her website recommends Maker's Mark, a video done on Instagram clearly shows a bottle of Jack Daniel's being used, indicating that either would be sufficient for the culinary titan. And while Jack Daniel's might not be considered bourbon, both it and Maker's Mark certainly count as popular and affordable whiskeys that will get you a whiskey sour just the way Stewart intended.

A whiskey connoisseur might originally turn up their nose at the prospect of using "bottom shelf" spirits such as Jack Daniel's and Maker's Mark as their whiskey of choice, but it turns out that Stewart might really be onto something by choosing these bottles in particular. Yes, a whiskey sour is certainly held up by the presence of the whiskey, but between the sweetness of the sugar and the tangy bite of the citrus, much of the delicate notes of a more expensive whiskey would be completely lost.

Jack Daniel's offers sweet notes of caramel and banana that complement the other flavors present in your other ingredients without being too bold. Meanwhile, Maker's Mark, famous for its iconic red wax drip, is also sweeter by virtue of it being a wheated bourbon (a bourbon that uses wheat instead of rye as its secondary grain) and has classic notes of caramel and vanilla. Now, for those looking for a stronger or spicier bourbon presence and more oomph in their sours, these may not be the whiskeys for you. But if you're looking for an approachable whiskey that's easy to drink in your cocktails, these two choices will do the job just fine.

Since the whiskey sour is such a simplistic formula, it shouldn't come as a shock that there have arisen a number of ways you can take your whiskey sour to the next level, and Martha Stewart is definitely guilty of having tweaked the original whiskey sour formula. Where a regular whiskey sour uses only lemon juice as its citrus component, Stewart instead decides to highlight the flavor of another citrus. She opts for a couple ounces of orange juice with lemon juice providing backup duty.

It can't be overstated how much this alters the drink. Orange juice is naturally sweeter and less sour than lemon juice, and will therefore make your drink a little sweeter and a little less tart overall. This isn't necessarily a bad thing — in fact, it seems to fit the rationale of Stewart's whiskey choices: aiming for approachability and ease of drinking instead of something more "challenging." And with so many different ways to make a whiskey sour now, you might as well give the Martha Stewart one a go and see how it stacks up!