Gin Sour

Recommended The Bar-Tender's Guide by Jerry Thomas (1862, p.63) — Jerry Thomas 1862

1. Make the drink with the same ingredients as the Gin Fix.
2. Press the juice of a small piece of lemon in the glass.
3. Omit all fruits except the lemon and serve cold.

Garnish: Small piece of lemon

Ice: Shaved ice

Nose

Fresh lemon sits over cool gin botanicals.

Palate

It is more precise and angular than the fix, with the botanical base now meeting the citrus line more directly.

Finish

The finish is tart, herbal, and refreshing.

Summary

A clean early sour that makes the later gin-and-citrus family tree much easier to see.

Gin Sour may look simple, but its historical value is immense. Thomas effectively shows us a modern sour template emerging by subtraction from a more ornate nineteenth-century iced drink.

Keep the serve focused. Once the fruit dressing is removed, balance and clarity become more important than decoration.

The Gin Sour feels closer to later familiar classics than many neighbouring Thomas drinks. That makes it a key bridge entry when we later compare nineteenth-century forms with twentieth-century standards.

American and Other Drinks by Leo Engel (1878, p.50)

1. Make as Gin Fix, omitting all fruits except a small piece of lemon.

Garnish: Lemon skin in the glass

Ice: Two-thirds full of ice

American and Other Drinks by Charlie Paul (1884, p.16)

1. Fill a tumbler with chipped ice.
2. Add the sugar, raspberry syrup, lemon, and gin, shake, strain, and place a small piece of lemon peel on top.

Garnish: Lemon peel

Ice: Chipped ice

Methode pour composer soi-meme Les boissons americaines by Emile Lefeuvre (1889, p.31) — Emile Lefeuvre 1889

1. Fill a cobbler glass two-thirds with crushed ice, add all ingredients, mix well, and serve with straws.

Ice: Crushed ice

Wehman's Bartender's Guide by Henry J. Wehman (1891, p.34) — Holland Gin (Henry J. Wehman 1891)

1. Dissolve the sugar and lemon well with a spoon together with the dash of lime juice and squirt of Seltzer water.
2. Add the fine shaved ice and Holland gin.
3. Mix well, strain into a sour glass, dress with a little fruit in season, and serve.

Garnish: Seasonal fruit

Nose

Gin botanicals, lemon, and lime create a sharper aromatic line than the whiskey and brandy forms.

Palate

It is brisker and slightly more angular than other contemporary sours, with the lime dash adding an extra edge.

Finish

The finish is herbal, tart, and cool.

Summary

A gin sour that shows the family already capable of slight citrus complexity beyond simple lemon.

The lime note is a useful detail because it shows sour-family variation can happen through small citrus adjustments, not only through base-spirit changes.

The drink remains a short sour despite the dissolving Seltzer and the citrus complexity.

Compared with Whiskey Sour, this is sharper and more botanical. Compared with Gin Daisy, it is shorter and less socially dressed.

Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappeler (1895, p.104) — George J. Kappeler 1895

1. Prepare the same as Brandy Sour, using gin in place of brandy.
2. Strain into a sour-glass and trim with fruit.

Garnish: Fruit

Ice: Fine ice

New and Improved Bartenders' Manual by Harry Johnson (1900, p.242) — Harry Johnson 1900

1. Dissolve the sugar, lemon juice, lime juice, and a squirt of syphon selters with a spoon.
2. Add the finely shaved ice and Holland gin.
3. Mix well and strain into a sour glass.
4. Dress with a little fruit in season and serve.

Garnish: Seasonal fruit

Ice: Finely shaved ice

Nose

The extra dash of lime gives the gin sour a brighter and slightly sharper citrus aroma than a simple lemon-only version.

Palate

This is a clean Holland-gin sour, with the dual citrus profile helping it feel a little more pointed and refreshing than many neighboring spirit sours.

Finish

The finish is brisk, citrusy, and lightly herbal.

Summary

A dual-citrus gin sour that shows the family refining its acid profile rather than remaining static.

The small lime addition is historically useful because it shows the sour family fine-tuning itself through minor acid adjustments, not only through changes of base spirit.

Even a small lime dash changes the structure. This is a good reminder that old specs often carry important nuance in tiny measures.

Daly's Bartenders' Encyclopedia by Tim Daly (1903, p.83)

1. Dissolve the sugar in a little seltzer and add the lemon juice, Holland gin, and fine ice.
2. Spoon well, strain into a sour glass, put in fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit.

Ice: Fine ice

Daly's morning-after gloss is a useful social frame for this otherwise plain gin sour.

This is another spooned and strained sour rather than a shaken fizz-style branch.

The Complete Buffet Guide by V. B. Lewis (1903, p.71) — V. B. Lewis 1903

1. Add the powdered sugar, lemon or lime juice, Seltzer or Apollinaris, shaved ice, and Holland gin to the glass.
2. Stir well, strain into a sour glass, dress with a little fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit

Ice: Shaved ice

Nose

Holland gin and citrus rise together.

Palate

Lewis keeps the gin sour squarely in the charged-water branch of the family, reinforcing the porous border between sour and fizz logic.

Finish

The finish is bright, herbal, and lightly sparkling.

Summary

A lightly aerated Holland-gin sour from the charged-water side of the family.

The Hoffman House Bartender's Guide by Charles S. Mahoney (1905, p.202)

1. Dissolve the sugar in a little seltzer or Apollinaris water, then add the lemon juice, gin, and shaved ice.
2. Shake up, strain into a sour glass, and dress the top with orange, or pineapple and berries.

Garnish: Fruit

Ice: Shaved ice

Jack's Manual by J. A. Grohusko (1910, p.52)

1. Shake the sugar, dry gin, lemon juice, and cracked ice.
2. Strain, add a slice of orange, and serve.

Garnish: Orange slice

Ice: Cracked ice

Bartenders' Guide: How to Mix Drinks by Wehman Bros. (1912, p.66)

1. Fill the glass with ice, add the sugar, lemon juice, seltzer, and Holland gin, stir well, strain into a sour glass, dress with fruit, and serve.

Ice: Ice

The Up-to-Date Bartender's Guide by Harry Montague (1913, p.42)

1. Fill a small bar glass three-quarters full with shaved ice and add the bar sugar, citrus juice, carbonated water, and Holland gin.
2. Stir, strain into a sour glass, dress with fruit, and serve.

Garnish: Fruit

Ice: Shaved ice

Down the Hatch by "Paul" (1920, p.14) — Down the Hatch 1920

1. Stir well with a spoon and strain into a punch glass.
2. Serve with cherry or pineapple.

Garnish: Cherry or pineapple

Ice: 0.5 scoop broken ice

This matters because it preserves the two-citrus Old Tom sour line into the early 1920s instead of a simplified later dry-gin form.

The small raspberry accent is the notable source-specific twist here.

Le Barman by Olivier Mayor (1921) — Olivier Mayor 1921, Cocktails Short Drinks section

1. Shake in a shaker, finish filling the glass with siphon water, and add peeled orange slice.

Garnish: Orange slice

Ice: Crushed ice

Manual del Barman by Antonio Fernandez (Tony) (1924) — Tony 1924, red wine float

1. Dilute lemon juice and sugar with soda, add crushed ice and dry gin, stir well, strain into a suitable small glass, and carefully float red wine on the surface.

Garnish: Red wine float

Ice: Crushed ice

Cheerio! A Book of Punches and Cocktails by Charles (1928, p.13)

1. Mix the sugar dissolved in a little seltzer water with the lemon juice and bitters in a small bar glass.
2. Add the gin, fill with shaved ice, shake, strain into a claret glass, and serve ornamented.

Garnish: Pineapple and berries in season

Ice: Shaved ice

Cocktails by Pedro Chicote (1928, p.333) — Chicote 1928

1. Prepare in the same manner as the Presidente Sour, using gin in place of rum.

Garnish: Seasonal fruit

Ice: 3 or 4 pieces of ice

This matters because Chicote still treats the sour as a transferable service template rather than a fixed single-base recipe.

The source gives this by explicit substitution from the rum version, which is useful family evidence.

Peychaud's New Orleans Cocktails by John Held Jr. (1935, p.15)

1. Shake well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

Ice: Ice