Taste profile
Sour cocktails
A sour cocktail is built on the tension between citrus acid and a touch of sugar, the ratio that gives the entire sour family — from a Whiskey Sour to a Daiquiri — its snap. Get the balance right and the drink tastes bracing rather than harsh, waking up the palate before the spirit even registers. It's the most technique-driven taste on this list: a little too much lime and the whole drink falls apart.
83 sour cocktails
Ginger Lime Fizz
Ginger beer, lime and soda over ice with mint — a spicy, fizzy CocktailHQ original.
Bacardí Cocktail
White rum, lime and grenadine, shaken cold — a Daiquiri with a pink, pomegranate-sweetened twist.
Tommy's Margarita
Tequila, lime and agave syrup — no triple sec — a cleaner, more agave-forward take on the Margarita.
Between the Sheets
Cognac, white rum, triple sec and lemon in close-to-equal parts — a strong, citrus-bright Sidecar relative.
Kombucha Mule
Ginger kombucha and lime over ice — a tangy, faintly funky alcohol-free take on the Moscow Mule format.
Sparkling Cranberry Mocktail
Tart cranberry juice lengthened with soda and lime — a bright, festive-looking three-ingredient mocktail.
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Muddled cucumber and mint lengthened with lime and soda — a cool, green, alcohol-free highball.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy
Honey, lemon and hot water with whole spice — the toddy's comforting half, without the whisky.
Virgin Sea Breeze
Cranberry and grapefruit over ice — the Sea Breeze's dry, tart half, which was always the interesting part.
Lime Rickey
Lime, a little sugar and soda water — three ingredients, and the driest long drink on the site.
Alcohol-free
Sour without the alcohol
19 alcohol-free sour options.
Ginger Lime Fizz
Ginger beer, lime and soda over ice with mint — a spicy, fizzy CocktailHQ original.
Kombucha Mule
Ginger kombucha and lime over ice — a tangy, faintly funky alcohol-free take on the Moscow Mule format.
Sparkling Cranberry Mocktail
Tart cranberry juice lengthened with soda and lime — a bright, festive-looking three-ingredient mocktail.
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Muddled cucumber and mint lengthened with lime and soda — a cool, green, alcohol-free highball.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy
Honey, lemon and hot water with whole spice — the toddy's comforting half, without the whisky.
Virgin Sea Breeze
Cranberry and grapefruit over ice — the Sea Breeze's dry, tart half, which was always the interesting part.
Lime Rickey
Lime, a little sugar and soda water — three ingredients, and the driest long drink on the site.
What drives it
What makes a cocktail sour
Not simply the most common ingredients — the ones that appear far more often in sour drinks than across the catalogue as a whole.
Lemon Juice
In 36 of these · 2.0× the catalogue rate
Lime Juice
In 39 of these · 1.7× the catalogue rate
Simple Syrup
In 24 of these · 1.8× the catalogue rate
Gin
In 18 of these · 1.5× the catalogue rate
Soda Water
In 19 of these · 1.4× the catalogue rate
Triple Sec
In 9 of these · 1.9× the catalogue rate
Tequila Blanco
In 8 of these · 1.8× the catalogue rate
Tomato Juice
In 4 of these · 2.3× the catalogue rate
The flavour graph
Where sour sits
Measured from the catalogue rather than asserted: which flavours actually travel together, and the drink that gets you from one to the other.
- Spicy
Sour drinks are mildly associated with spicy ones: 13 carry both, making a sour drink 47% more likely to also be spicy than a drink picked at random.
Drinks that bridge across
Sour + Spicy
Reads as sour and spicy at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.