Enhance Your Cocktail Skills with Our Raspberry Scotch Sour Recipe

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For a glamorous, elegant take on the Scotch sour, look no further than this raspberry number. Refreshing and equal parts sweet and tart, this is the kind of drink that will make you want to don an evening gown and channel Old Hollywood magic right in your living room.

According to Ksenia Prints of At the Immigrant’s Table, a Scotch sour is often perceived as a vintage, acidic, and masculine drink that tastes of peated whiskey and cigar smoke. But this drink can become so much more unique and flavorful with the addition of raspberry preserves, a raspberry liqueur, and a few luxurious garnishes. Because who doesn’t want to feel like a starlet of the silver screen for a night?

“Raspberries go really well with lemons, and once you sub the regular simple syrup with a honey and preserves sweetener combo, the whole drink just feels lighter and more elevated,” says Prints. These finishing touches mellow out the Scotch whiskey, softening its edges and turning this into a delicate cocktail that rivals some of the genre’s biggest classics.

To make the honey simple syrup for this cocktail, you will need water, honey, and granulated sugar. For the Scotch sour base, you will need peated single malt Scotch whisky, fresh lemon juice, raspberry liqueur, high-quality raspberry preserves, an egg white (though you can also use aquafaba or cocktail foamer drops), and red edible cocktail glitter, to give the drink a luxe appearance. For garnish, a cocktail pick with fresh raspberries and a pinch of red edible glitter.

Combine the water, honey, and sugar in small saucepan over medium heat.

Stir until the sugar and honey dissolve completely.

Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature before transferring to a jar and refrigerating.

Combine the Scotch, lemon juice, raspberry liqueur, preserves, and honey simple syrup in a mixing glass.

Stir until the preserves dissolve completely.

Add the egg white and edible glitter to a cocktail shaker.

Pour in the Scotch mixture.

Dry shake (without ice) vigorously for 20 seconds to emulsify the egg whites.

Add ice to the shaker, then shake again for 15 seconds to chill.

Double-strain through a fine mesh strainer into a chilled coupe glass, and wait for the foam to settle for 15 seconds.

Garnish with raspberries skewered on a cocktail pick and dust lightly with additional red edible glitter powder, if desired.

Serve immediately.

The first thing we need to get straight is this: a Scotch sour is in itself a variation on a classic cocktail, the whiskey sour. A sour is a classic cocktail family characterized by the combination of a strong spirit, citrus juice (typically lemon or lime), and sweetener. It was originally developed by sailors in the 1600s as a practical way to consume spirits while preventing scurvy.

If you want to go even further down the rabbit hole of customizing your Scotch sours, then we have a few ideas for you. One way to both mellow the drink and take it in a sweeter direction is to sub the lemon juice for orange juice. You can try to make your Scotch sour into a pickle sour by changing it for pickle juice altogether, bringing together the smokiness of the Scotch with the sour tang of the pickle — just make sure to use a good kosher dill pickle or a spicy pickle rather than a commercially made one. Another classic we love is the New York sour, which you can attain by mixing a Scotch sour and floating red wine over it.

If you’re new to cocktail making, don’t be intimidated by dry shaking. It’s crucial to shake rather than stir your Scotch sour. It helps aerate and inflate your egg whites, creating that beautiful foamy layer, and also chills and dilutes the very alcohol-forward drink you’re about to consume.

This is where dry shaking becomes particularly crucial. First, it helps create a more stable foam structure, as the absence of ice during the first shake helps the proteins to unfold and denature properly. Second, the double shaking also gives us a smoother, silkier drink than simply shaking over ice would. It’s not terribly difficult, but if you’re still worried about the process, there are some tips you can learn to help you get it right every time.

If sipping on raw egg white isn’t your thing, don’t fret, because there are plenty of alternatives to this technique. The most well-known one these days is to use aquafaba, or the liquid from a can of chickpeas (or from cooking them). About 1 tablespoon per drink will give you a stable foam that is very similar to an egg white, with minimal flavor. Another option is to use a commercial product like a cocktail foamer, either vegan or not. These usually come in drop form, and can transform your drink with just a few presses of the dropper.