To Make A Whiskey Sour Like Martha Stewart, You'll Need This Game-Changing Ingredient

It should come as no surprise that Martha Stewart, the unrivaled authority on how to do just about anything in and around your domicile, is also an exacting mixologist. We've sipped Stewart's favorite caipirinhas, marveled at the amount of alcohol in her eggnog, and gotten double buzzed on her espresso martinis. They're each stamped with the homemaking, entertaining, and media mogul's signature excellence, and Stewart's whiskey sour is no exception to that high imbibing bar.

"The secret to my whiskey sours is fresh orange juice," Stewart says in a clip posted to her Instagram account. This, of course, diverges from the typical preparation that uses lemon juice as its exclusive citrus. The addition alone would almost certainly make the drink sweeter, oranges having a higher sugar content than lemons, but Stewart also rims her glasses with granulated sugar, which further amps up the confectionery quotient. Although it will taste fairly distinct upon your first sip, this is still very much a sour, so she does not eschew the lemon altogether.

Online, Martha Stewart recommends using a quarter cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, along with the same amount of the more expected bourbon and, of course, citrus (also fresh!). You can usually expect to get a full cup of juice out of four oranges, and scale up or down as needed. The cocktail is ultimately shaken with ice, a bit more sugar, and, of course, a few tablespoons of the traditional lemon juice that your sour is likely more used to. And, as long as we're counting, even smaller lemons will often yield at least an ounce (or 2 tablespoons) of juice.

Should you prefer your citrus less sweet, but still seek a departure from the standard sour, you could split the difference with grapefruit juice instead. You might even be able to squeeze a whole cup out of just one, being that the fruit is larger than lemons or oranges. Although Stewart if very clear about the freshness of each squeeze, you can always portion one or more of your juices into ice cube trays to freeze and use months into the future for a taste that still surpasses bottled.