Last Updated on March 9, 2020 by Heather Wibbels
Valentine’s cocktails seem to be go pink or go home, but I love a luscious cocktail topped with the white froth that holds up a garnish on its own in a whiskey sour. I’d originally wanted to create a pink or red cocktail, but I’m not a vodka girl, and I have very few red or pink liqueurs.
In fact, I have a habit of disregarding pink cocktails as they’ve largely been underwhelming for me in the past. It’s simply hard to construct a pink or red cocktail when you use whiskey as your base spirit. I tend toward higher proof whiskies, and that makes the color a little too dark to let delicate shades of pink come through in a cocktail.
Now I have had success in creating blackberry sours that were a gorgeous deep purple. The secret was a homemade blackberry simple syrup that came from the blackberries in my back yard. You could make them from storebought blackberries, but I like to think using my own made the cocktail better.
So with whiskey sour cocktails, many people will want to omit the egg white and while you can do that, the cocktail will be stronger and have sharper edges. The flavors don’t meld together quite as well without it. Part of that is the mouthfeel that the egg whites add to a cocktail. I made this particular cocktail not with egg white but with aquafaba. Aquafaba is the liquid reserved from cooking garbanzo beans. I was leery to try it, but it truly is as good as an egg white in terms of smoothing out the the cocktail.
Instead, I went for a sexy egg white sour where the surface of the drink is soft and luxurious, but the underside has just the right amount of bite and sweetness to it. Combined with the faint aroma of roses from the petals floating on the surface it’s my take on a perfect cocktail for a romantic evening, whether it’s a night out or a night in.
One necessary ingredient is the Old Forester Hummingbird bitters. I found that the floral bitters added to the rose notes that came off the rose bud garnish. If you have a floral bitter you prefer, but if you have the chance to get a bottle of the Hummingbird bitters from Old Forester, don’t pass it up. They are amazing in martinis, sours, and some old fashioned cocktails.
Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz Woodford Reserve rye whiskey
- 1 oz PAMA liqueur
- 0.75 oz lemon juice
- 0.75 oz simple syrup
- 1 egg white
- 4 drops Old Forester Hummingbird bitters
- Garnish: dried rose buds
Instructions
- Combine rye, PAMA, lemon juice, simple, egg white and bitters in a shaker tin. Add one ice cube and shake, shake, shake and shake. Add the usual amount of ice and continue to shake. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with dried rose buds.
