Three template drinks: a sour, an old fashioned, and a highball
← Learn library

Technique path · ~40 min

Sours mastery

Own the 2:1:1 skeleton, a hard shake, egg-white foam, a clean coupe, and the fixes for thin, sweet, or lifeless citrus drinks.

Begin the path →

5 lessons in this path

Start here · Structure

Cocktail templates

Start with the sour template so every tweak has a name.

Open lesson

2. Core method

Shake

Chill, dilute, and aerate — stop when the tin is painfully cold.

Continue

3. Technique

Dry Shake

Foam first, then ice. Skip this and egg sours come out warm and thin-capped.

Continue

4. Technique

Fine Strain

Hawthorne plus mesh so chips don’t keep watering a drink served up.

Continue

5. Palate training

Balance: sweet, sour, strong, weak

Too sweet, too thin, no foam — diagnose in the glass, don’t rewrite the recipe.

Continue