Holidays at Home: How to Make the Perfect Gin Sour

For our next holidays at home installment, I headed down to Bar Stories on Haji Lane and met up with owner and bartender extraordinaire Dave Koh. To help you with your home entertaining, Dave has walked us through how to make the perfect gin sour for your holiday guests.

I've taken one of Dave's master bartender classes and it was so packed with useful tips and information. Watch the full video to learn about the right ingredients, prep and tools you need to recreate this classic cocktail at home. You can also find the recipe and steps below!

The Perfect Gin Sour

Tools you'll need

Cocktail shaker
Jigger or shot glass for measuring
Fine mesh strainer and hawthorne strainer
Whisk
Microplane or grater for zesting lime

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz (45 ml) gin
3/4 oz (22.5 ml) fresh lime juice, strained (freshly squeezed, not bottled!)
3/4 (22.5 ml) oz simple sugar syrup (make with 1:1 parts castor sugar and cold water, instructions below). Can be substituted with other sweeteners like agave syrup
1/2 oz (15 ml) egg whites, blended and strained
Fresh lime zest and angostura bitters for garnishing

Directions

1. Make sugar syrup by combining 1 part castor sugar to 1 part water, whisk until fully dissolved
2. Juice fresh limes with citrus juicer (or just squeeze with your hands!) and strain out pulp and seeds using a fine mesh strainer
3. Separate egg whites from yolks, blend yolks in a blender until smooth and strain with a fine mesh strainer (Note: Sugar syrup, lime juice and egg whites can be made ahead, measured out and combined into a bottle for easy mixing when guests arrive)
4. When ready to serve, fill your glass with ice to chill
5. Pour gin, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg whites in a shaker without ice, shake for about 8 seconds
6. Add enough ice cubes to fill your shaker, shake again for about 8 seconds
7. Discard ice from glass, use a strainer on the shaker to strain the ice out while you pour the cocktail from the shaker into a glass
8. Garnish with lime zest and bitters

Want to check out Bar Stories for yourself? Visit them at 55-57A Haji Lane, Singapore 189248 and follow them on Instagram.

Hope you'll enjoy this cocktail with your guests and have a wonderful holiday season at home.

Stay safe,

Toni Chan
August Society Founder & Creative Director

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