Tamarind Whiskey Sour

• September 22, 2024
• Cocktails

2024's Flavour of the Year

by Erin Henderson

Tamarind – the sweet and sour fruit grown in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia – was crowned flavour of the year back in January.  

An integral ingredient in Thai and Indian cooking, it’s also the base of Worcestershire and HP steak sauce. I always have a jar of concentrate lying around as I make a lot of Thai food in the summer, and Indian in the winter. I’m not sure why I relegate each cuisine to cold and warm months, but I suppose that’s for my therapist to decide.

Tamarind is sold in bricks, which need rehydrating; concentrates, pastes, and powders. If you haven't used it yet, it's a terrific ingredient, and shouldn’t be too difficult to find in any decently stocked grocery store (if not, there’s always online…) I prefer the concentrate because I like to cut to the chase and not futz around with soaking the brick in hot water and straining out the seeds. But, you do you.  

Now that the weather is cooling down here in Toronto I’m dusting off the whisky bottles and pushing the gin to the back of the shelf. At least for now.

I saw a post on Food and Wine about using tamarind in a whisky sour, and thought it was a grand idea. The magazine calls for bourbon, which in this case I find overly sweetens the drink. I used a leaner Irish whisky with plum and smoke notes for what I think is better balance.

Instead of making a rich simple syrup as F+W outlines, I used maple syrup. I also dialed back the one ounce of fresh lemon their recipe calls for, to a half ounce as my brand of tamarind concentrate is more sour than sweet and I didn’t need extra tartness in my drink. I also add the tiniest pinch of salt to my cocktails to amplify the flavours (like adding salt to a chocolate cake.)

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This is how I think recipes should be handled: in no way am I suggesting F+W’s recipe inferior. But I don’t know the brand of tamarind the recipe developer used, nor the brand of bourbon. I also don’t know that person’s tastes.

In my cocktail classes, I always urge the students to try each ingredient on its own. How strong are the bitters, how sweet is the syrup, how smoky is the whisky? Don’t just blindly plop everything into a shaker and serve the drink. Taste your ingredients and adjust the measurements until it tastes good to you.