Tallahassee Foodies Pro Feature – Welcome to another edition of “Tallahassee Foodies Pro Feature”. This pro feature series is all about collaboration (I love getting to know people better through a fun food or beverage collab) and education. Once a week, I’m inviting a local expert in our community to “teach us their talent”! Today, I am thrilled to welcome Terry Logue, a local cocktail expert that has become quite the super star in local restaurants over the years, as well as on Instagram for his beautiful cocktails! I’ll let Terry take it from here with an education in sour cocktails…
Hello there Tallahassee Foodies, my name is Terry Logue and today I’m going to give away a little secret of cocktailing. I use this idea frequently, when experimenting with new spirits and liqueurs, or using up whatever I have in my house, or when making a guest “something special”.
It involves the classic cocktail, the Sour. Most people have heard of the Whiskey Sour and the Daiquiri, but like most classics, the Sour is less a recipe and more a format expressed as a ratio. The Sour Family of cocktails is composed of a spirit, citrus juice, and a sweetener. That ratio is as follows:
| 2 : 1 : 1 |
This can be expressed as ounces for one standard size cocktail or parts if you want to make a larger cocktail or mix several at once.
From here, the “2” is the spirit. Literally any hard liquor you currently possess. Vodka, gin, rum, cachaça, tequila, mezcal, Bourbon, rye, Scotch, pick one. Remember, the choice you make here will greatly impact the character of the cocktail.
Next is citrus juice, the acidic component. Lemon and lime are the usual suspects #freshisbest. Orange and grapefruit are as well, but often they need to be paired with lemon or lime, because they aren’t acidic enough on their own. The difference between lemon and lime is subtler than most think, and will have less impact on the character of the cocktail. The general “rule” (I don’t even know if I should call it a rule) is clear spirits go with lime and dark spirits go with lemon, but this isn’t written in stone.
Last is the sweetener. Sugar. That sweet, sweet gold. Simple syrup is our basic, most commonly used sweetener behind the bar. Take granulated white sugar and mix it with an equal amount of water. It’s a simple syrup, made of sugar and water. That’s it. Sugar and water, it’s simple. (Sugar dissolves faster into warmer water, so I usually prepare my simple in a pot on the stove.) Of course, you can also experiment with the sweetener. Different types of sugars, honey, agave, maple, cane, fruit syrups, herbed syrups. You can even use a liqueur (think the Cointreau/triple sec/Grand Ma/curaçao/orange liqueur in a Margarita). This choice can have a huge impact on the final cocktail.
So there you have it, the Sour Cocktail. Remember this 2:1:1 ratio is a starting point. For your personal palate, and depending on which three ingredients you chose, you might need or want to adjust. If it’s too sweet, add more acid. If it’s too tart, add more sugar. If it’s too strong, add both. Shake with ice (cocktails with citrus juice are almost always shaken, as a rule), and strain, either into a stemmed cocktail glass (like a coupe or the V-style “Martini glass”), OR over fresh ice in whatever glass you prefer. Cheers!
(P.S. Don’t buy simple syrup at a store.)
Follow Terry Logue on Instagram for all things cocktails, beer, sometimes spirits, food, wine, and coffee. We are inviting guest bloggers to share at TallahasseeFoodies.com in exchange for some social media link love. Terry opted to highlight a fundraiser in honor of Samantha Conboy, raising funds to create “Sam’s Studio”, an art space at the Rotary Youth Summer Camp of North Florida, dedicated to Samantha and to other organizations that help children with disabilities. Thank you, Terry!
