The Simple Way To Give Your Whiskey Sour A Delightful Spicy Boost

While we love our whiskey sours, we can't help but sometimes wish we could enhance the cocktail further. After all, cocktails with nuanced flavors and savory, spicy additions (like extra dirty martinis with added MSG or our botanist spicy tequila cocktail) are all the rage right now. The simple way to give your whiskey sour a delightful spicy boost is to look in your pantry and grab your favorite hot sauce. 

Whiskey sours, like our classic frothy whiskey sour cocktail recipe, are tarty and refreshing. A splash of hot sauce, like Tabasco sauce, works beautifully in whiskey sours because spicy, sweet, and sour are flavors that balance each other out. 

Ready to give your whiskey sour a spicy boost? For starters, add about ¼ teaspoon of hot sauce to your whiskey sour, give it a taste, and go from there. For those who love heat and spice, add more hot sauce to get your tastebuds tingling with each sip. While we mentioned Tabasco sauce, we recommend experimenting with different hot sauces as well. If you need a hot sauce recommendation, we've ranked some of the best grocery store hot sauce brands, which includes Tabasco and sriracha, the hot sauce with an incredible shelf-life. Of course, you could also always craft your own hot sauce recipe at home. 

One hot sauce that we've been excited about lately is gochujang, a Korean fermented chili paste. Thanks to fermentation, gochujang has a deep flavor and would not only give your whiskey sour a spicy boost but an umami boost as well. This spicy condiment has found its way into not just savory dishes and cooking but baking as well in cookies and cakes. Lately, gochujang has made its way into beers as well, signaling without a doubt that gochujang is glorious in a whiskey sour. For those not familiar with gochujang, taste test it first. Then stir about ¼ teaspoon of gochujang into your whiskey sour. 

Honestly, any of your favorite hot sauces could work when stirred or shaken in your whiskey cocktail, including the 10 mouth-burning hot sauces we tried. Just be open to experimentation. If you don't have any hot sauce handy, you could also add sliced peppers or chili powder to turn up the heat in your whiskey sours.