Tequila Sour Recipe: Classic, With or Without Egg
step by step guide for cocktail
How to mix it?
The tequila sour is a cocktail that has been around since the early 20th century and is made with Altos Reposado Tequila, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white. It is often served with a salted rim, as is done with the margarita. The name “tequila sour” is due to its resemblance to a traditional sour drink made with whiskey, lemon juice and sugar syrup.
The bitterness of the cocktail comes from the combination of lime juice and egg white. In fact the lime juice adds acidity, while the egg white adds body and sweetness to balance the flavor profile of this drink.
What is a Tequila Sour?
A Tequila Sour is the tequila version of the classic sour family: 60 ml of tequila, 45 ml of fresh citrus, 30 ml of agave syrup and one egg white, shaken twice and served with a foam cap. It takes five minutes and needs no bar equipment beyond a shaker and a strainer. The agave is what makes it a tequila sour rather than a whiskey sour with the spirit swapped: it rounds the lemon in a way sugar syrup does not.
The name is older than the drink you just made. The earliest known printed recipe under the name Tequila Sour appears in the sours section of The World Famous Cotton Club: 1939 Book of Mixed Drinks, credited to the New York bartender Charlie Conolly. That 1939 build was tequila, Cointreau and lime in a salt-rimmed glass, which is closer to a Margarita than to the egg white sour we pour today.
Tequila Sour vs Margarita
Both are tequila and citrus, and that is where the similarity ends.
A margarita is tequila, lime and orange liqueur, served short and often with a salt rim. A Tequila Sour is tequila, lemon, a sweetener and egg white, served with a foam cap and no salt. The margarita is sharper and drier; the sour is rounder, softer and slightly richer in the mouth because of the protein in the foam.
If you like your margarita on the sweet side, the Tequila Sour is the natural next step. If you drink it dry and salty, stay with the margarita.
| Tequila Sour | Margarita | |
|---|---|---|
| Tequila | 60 ml Altos Reposado | 60 ml Altos Plata |
| Citrus | 30 ml lemon, 15 ml lime | 30 ml lime |
| Sweet element | 30 ml agave syrup | 30 ml sweetener of choice |
| Egg white | Yes, one | No |
| Rim | None | Coarse salt |
| Garnish | Cherry and a citrus slice | Lime wedge |
| Profile | Rounder and softer, foam on top | Sharper and drier, salt on the rim |
How to make a Tequila Sour without egg
You can make a Tequila Sour without egg and still get the foam.
Use aquafaba, the brine from a can of chickpeas. Measure 30 ml and use it exactly as you would the egg white: dry shake first, then shake again with ice. It whips into the same silky cap and it is vegan. Strained and kept in a sealed container in the fridge it holds for up to five days, and it freezes for months.
If you want no foam at all, skip both. Shake the tequila, lemon, lime and agave with ice, strain over one large cube and finish with the bitters. It is a shorter, sharper drink, and it is still a Tequila Sour.
How to make a Tequila Sour with sweet and sour mix
If you already have sweet and sour mix at home, the shortcut works: 60 ml of Altos Reposado and 60 ml of sweet and sour mix, shaken with ice. It is faster, and it is the version most bars pour when the ticket rail is full. It is not the only shortcut in the range either: our agave sour swaps the citrus mix for fresh orange and a pinch of pepper, and it is a different drink altogether.
It will not be the same drink. Commercial mix carries more sugar and no egg white, so you lose the foam and you gain sweetness. If you want it closer to the classic, cut the mix to 45 ml and add 15 ml of fresh lemon.
To make sweet and sour mix yourself: equal parts water and sugar heated until the sugar dissolves, cooled, then equal parts fresh lemon and lime juice. It keeps a week in the fridge.
Which Altos tequila to choose
Altos Reposado is the default for this drink. Rested in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels, it brings the vanilla and cooked agave notes that hold up against the lemon, and the foam carries them.
Altos Plata makes a brighter, greener sour. Use it if you want the citrus in front and the agave behind.
Both are 100% agave and both come from Los Altos de Jalisco, where part of the agave is still crushed with a tahona, the volcanic stone wheel. That is the part you taste in the finish.
Both work in the rest of our Altos cocktail recipes too, and the sour is the one that shows the reposado best.
Garnish and glassware
Serve it in a chilled coupe if you want the foam to show, or over one large cube in a rocks glass if you want it to last longer.
The garnish is the bitters. Angostura on the foam and a cocktail pick dragged through them: that is the whole decoration, and it is also aromatic, because you smell the bitters before you taste the drink. Add a lemon or lime slice on the rim and a cherry if you want the classic look.
No salt rim. That belongs to the margarita.
Tequila Sour calories
A Tequila Sour made to this spec comes to roughly 280 calories per drink: about 133 from the tequila, 120 from the agave syrup, 11 from the citrus and 17 from the egg white. Almost half of it is the sweetener, which is the most useful thing to know if you are watching what you drink. Our full nutritional information page has the numbers for the rest of the range.
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