WRRV’s 12 Days of Cocktails: Cranberry Cinnamon Whiskey Sour

WRRV's 12 Days of Cocktails is getting you ready for holiday celebrations with delicious cocktail recipes. These are drinks that you can make at home to both celebrate the holidays and impress your friends with your mad bartending skills.

Today is our fourth day and our cocktail is a Cranberry Cinnamon Whiskey Sour, courtesy of Henry's at the Farm, Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa in Milton, NY. Here is how you make it:

Ingredients:

• 1 part Hudson Valley Baby Bourbon
• ½ part cranberry puree *(recipe is below)
• ¼ pt Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
• ¼ part citrus (lemon & lime juice)
• ¼ part simple syrup
• Dash of cinnamon

Making the cocktail:

• Build in an ice filled shaker
• Add all ingredients and Shake
• Strain into an ice filled rocks glass
• Garnish with a full moon lime, cinnamon stick, and dash of cinnamon on top

Directions for making the cranberry puree:

• 1 cup of fresh cranberries
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cranberry juice
• Puree ingredients until fine & smooth

What makes a cocktail a "sour?" You might have started your drinking career with a whiskey sour or an amaretto sour, but what gives it that designation? Is it just a bitter flavored cocktail? A sour usually contains three things and if you have a hard core traditionalist bartender, it will contain a fourth. Let's break it down.

A sour will always--even though the name says a little different--be a balanced cocktail. It can be in a rocks glass over ice or in a coupe glass. This is one of those drinks that the glass is not what it's all about (move over martini & margarita!)--it's about the contents.

Here is what you can always (and occasionally) find in a sour:

• Your base spirit, i.e. whiskey, amaretto, pisco, etc
• A sweet. This can be a simple syrup. The syrup from a can of peaches, for example, or something else that is sweet and easily dissolved.
• A sour. Yes, can get away with that mix of yellow colored stuff that they sell in the store, but after you have a few drinks with fresh lemon, lime, citrus, etc., you will never want to go back. In a pinch, Paul Newman's lemonade or limeade has come to my rescue, but always try to have your cocktail pantry stacked and you won't run into those tight situations.

Now for the occasional:

• Occasionally, a sour will contain an egg white. I always leave that to the professionals. Why? I just don't think my own mix-ologist confidence has gotten to that high of a status. When I am out at a place that knows what they are doing?  Oh, yeah, bring it on.
• The other thing that you might find in your sour cocktail, but there is some discussion between drink enthusiasts on this last item. What is it? A splash of soda. Yep. Simple in thought, but the one item that you either love or have serious disdain for. Seriously, next time you have a moment to chat with a bartender, ask them, "How do you feel about putting a splash of soda in a sour cocktail?" You might get an eye-roll or a dissertation on how that little amount of soda balances the insert word here in the cocktail.

Bottom line, try them and use fresh ingredients when you can.

Here is a look at another cocktail made at Henry's at the Farm: