By the turn of the 21st century, the Whiskey Sour’s name was mud. Commercial shortcuts like that helped to sully the drink’s reputation, as did the jettisoning of fresh juice in favor of sour mix.

After the repeal of Prohibition, it quickly rebounded to prominence, not just in its natural state, but in the form of bottled Whiskey Sours and in Whiskey Sour mixes. Mentions of it begin to appear in newspapers in the 1860s a decade later it was fairly ubiquitous. Though the history of the Whiskey Sour is discussed less frequently than that of other classics, it is one of the oldest of mixed drinks to have remained in regular circulation throughout the years. Which whiskey should be used-bourbon, rye or something else? Do you serve it up or on the rocks? What ingredient proportions are best? And, perhaps most critically, egg white or no egg white? And, if there is an egg white, how should you shake the drink? Dry shake the egg white, then shake all else with ice? Dry shake everything, then wet shake? Reverse dry shake? The panel tasted all possible combinations of the above.

To get to the bottom of it, a PUNCH panel of tasters sampled 17 versions of the drink, submitted by bartenders from across the country. While it is a simple drink-merely whiskey, citrus and sugar-it poses, like any sour, several questions of construction that must be addressed. That isn’t to say, however, that the Whiskey Sour is a case that was long ago cracked. The addition of a 'spray' of Angostura bitters earned Neal Bodenheimer a spot in the top three during our recent tasting of nearly 20 Whiskey Sours.

Best whiskey sour recipe ever