The Worst Ingredient A Bartender Can Use In A Whiskey Sour, According To Ina Garten

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There are a few ways that the seemingly simple whiskey sour can go south, particularly if your preparation adds egg white to the mix. But even the easier combination of the titular spirit, lemon juice, and simple syrup can end up wonky with the wrong proportions, or just plain abrasive with an inferior spirit. But culinary personality and cookbook author Ina Garten cautions against a common hospitality shortcut, instead: using bottled lemon juice instead of freshly-squeezed.

Speaking about a good whiskey sour with CBS Sunday Morning on the occasion of her memoir's publication, Garten said that "The key to this is that it's fresh juice." She went on to add, "So many times you go to a bar or restaurant and they make whiskey sours with, like, bottled lemon juice. That's just the worst." The shortcut is appealing, being that you might get as little as 1 ounce of juice from a lemon. You'll need about that much for a single whiskey sour, which can become prohibitively time consuming at a busy bar. It can seem like a chore at home, too, particularly if you're making whiskey sours for a group. But some of our favorite tools (and even one cheat code) make souring those whiskeys a little more convenient.

There are tons of tips and tricks for squeezing every last drop of juice from a lemon. It also helps to start out with the right equipment. While there are plenty of fancy electric juicers on the market with upscale price tags to match, a simpler alternative is the OXO Good Grips citrus juicer for its ease of use and space-saving size that isn't much larger than a serving spoon. Once you've gotten on a roll and collected a fair amount of juice, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and use them as needed later on. You can measure with water to be sure, but most standard ice cubes typically hold about an ounce of liquid, so you'll know how many you'll need to thaw at room temperature later on.

Avoiding bottled juice for top notch cocktails (except for maybe the cranberry in your perfectly pink colored cosmos) is also great guidance in general, especially since it tends to be packed with additives, is too bland or tart, and generally lacks the brightness of freshly squeezed alternatives. However, there is one exception. It's always a good idea to skip anything with a bunch of added sugar or other additives that can throw off a whole recipe, but we have found that some juice brands have better ingredients. For example, the bottled Santa Cruz organic pure lemon juice is virtually indistinguishable from freshly-squeezed, so feel free to use it in your whiskey sours. Just don't tell the Barefoot Contessa.