Golden Cherry Whiskey Sour Recipe

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10 Feb

A deliciously sweet and citrusy twist on the classic whiskey sour cocktail with Cherry and Sage.

Golden cherry and sage whiskey sour cocktail recipe photo

Looking for a super simple and delicious cocktail you can make from the comfort of your own home? Of course you are! Why else would you be here? Welcome! Below you will find my recipe for a cherry whiskey sour that couldn’t be any easier to make at home!

Make a Cherry Whiskey Punch

If you like this recipe, you could even times the whole thing by 5 and make a big batch of cherry whisky sours for whenever you’re thirsty! Simply bottle it up and give it a shake with ice before serving.

Now, this recipe does involve making a sage simple syrup. But before you worry. If you’ve never done this before then you are about to learn why they call this simple syrup “simple”. Spoiler, it’s super easy to make.

For those who are more experienced in the arts of cocktail making then this will be a breeze for you. So gather up your ingredients and let’s get mixing!

Cherry Whiskey Sour Ingredients

Cherry Puree

First things first, you can’t make a cherry whiskey sour without cherry. For this recipe we will opt for cherry puree. A simple google search will bring up plenty of options. My ultimate favourite is Re’al black cherry, but use whatever you want. Also, that black cherry puree works wonders on yogurt.

If you can’t get cherry puree, go for cherry jam. And if you can’t get the puree or the jam, use a cherry syrup.

Sage Syrup

Below is the recipe for the sage syrup I used for this cocktail. The beauty of this syrup is its delicious! Sweet with a herbaceous character. This recipe will make around 300ml of your sage syrup which you can then use for a number of drinks and cocktails.

Try pouring 20ml into a glass and topping it with soda for a wonderful sage soda. Or mix it with your favourite non-alcoholic spirit and ginger ale for a delightfully complex and sweet mocktail. The possibilities are endless sort off.

Ingredients

250grams White sugar
250ml Water
A handful of sage leaves

Method

Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan over a medium heat
Stir till the sugar has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved fully take off the heat, add in the sage leaves, stir and leave the mixture for 30-60 minutes. Taste the mixture as time goes by till you get to your preferred taste.
Once preferred taste, strain out and funnel into a bottle. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Top Tip

If you want your syrup to last longer add a dash of vodka, about 10-15ml. It will keep your mixture fresher for longer. You can also add around 1 tsp of citric acid to make it last 3 weeks+

Whiskey

You could use Scotch which works well with cherry and especially cherry whiskey sours, or you could use Irish whiskey or Japanese whisky. It’s completely up to you. However, my top recommendation for this Cherry whiskey sour has to be bourbon.

Which Bourbon should you use?

Short answer, any. Whichever bourbon you would normally use in a cocktail, especially classic whiskey sours will work perfectly. Don’t worry too much about using certain bourbons that have certain flavour profiles. The cherry, sage and lemon will be the shining flavours in this. The bourbon just adds a level of depth.

So don’t stress, it doesn’t have to be an expensive bourbon, just go with whatever you like.

Lemon Juice

We also need some sour in this sour and just like a classic whiskey sour, our cherry whiskey sour will use lemon juice.

Golden Cherry Garnish

That strange gold ball garnishing the cocktail in the photo is a golden cherry. It’s not something that’s completely necessary, however, it sure adds a touch of class and sophistication to what’s otherwise a quite basic cocktail. A little bit of flair never hurt anyone after all.

So how do you make one at home?

It’s super simple. Just pull the stem of a cherry then spray it in gold edible glitter. The edible glitter is easy enough to get hold of. In the UK you can get the gold edible spray from just about most supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, even Aldi stocks it from time to time. You will find it in the baking section as it’s usually used for cake decorating.

In Fact I think the actually name for it is “Gold edible cupcake spray” costs me about £2.5 and lasts a long time. Caution when using though, it will cover you in gold glitter making you sparkle for a week.

Looking for a creamy variation?

If you prefer whiskey sours with a lighter, airy mouthfeel then add the whites from one egg into your cocktail shaker. This will foam up your cherry whiskey sour and give it a much more lighter mouthfeel.

Just remember that if you’re adding egg white, you have to shake the cocktail much more vigorously to achieve that truly creamy mouthfeel.
It’s good practice to dry shake when adding egg white. What this means is you will add all your ingredients to a shaker without ice and shake for a good 10 - 15 seconds to get that foamy texture. Then add your ice and shake a second time.

Cherry Whiskey Sour Cocktail Recipe