It’s the winter that will never end, and this Blood Orange Bourbon Sour is the best way to sip your way through it! Instead of fighting the lion, let’s celebrate winter’s best flavors with this sweet and bitter blood orange cocktail.

The first day of spring welcomed us with giant, frigid arms and buckets of snow. “In like a lion, out like a lamb”? Please, yes.
The upside to mid-week snow days is that it’s completely acceptable to cozy up with books, blankets, and a blood orange cocktail while you put off everything else (and if you’re doing that on non-snowy days too, I salute you).
Blood oranges are a tricky citrus. They taunt you with their gorgeous crimson flesh and variegated speckled rind, but then you take a big bite and….hello bittertown. Like March, they need to be tamed. For salads, I like to salt slices of blood oranges to draw out the bitter and reveal the sweet.
But drinks are a different story. Bitter cocktails like the Negroni, Old Fashioned and Boulevardier are enjoying quite the renaissance, and I’m only too happy to indulge in that trend. A blood orange cocktail is the perfect way to celebrate the sharp sour notes of fresh blood oranges, and the bourbon sour is a natural companion. Let’s get sippin’, shall we?
How to Make a Bourbon Sour Blood Orange Cocktail
This blood orange cocktail is as straightforward as they come. Stir, pour, garnish and sip. It doesn’t get any easier than this. Would you rather watch a slideshow? Check out our web story!
You’ll need an ounce of fresh squeezed blood orange juice for one cocktail. Give the blood oranges a little roll on the counter to break up the flesh and release the juices. Then slice in half and use a reamer or the tines of a fork to juice the orange into a small bowl. If you’re making these cocktails for a crowd and need a large volume of fresh juice, we love our electric citrus juicer.
Our liquor of choice for this cocktail is bourbon, specifically Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon. It’s sweet and smokey, and a natural foil for it’s sour cocktail companions. It’s also widely available, and it won’t break the bank.
Pour the blood orange juice, bourbon, and some sour mix into a cocktail shaker, stir, and pour over ice. I make homemade sour mix using simple syrup (see recipe notes), lemon juice, and lime juice in a 2:2:1 ratio. For ease you can certainly use pre-made sour mix, but know that it’s sweeter than the homemade stuff.
Cam and I love these giant ice cubes for bourbon-based cocktails in particular, where you want to be able to slow sip and enjoy the cocktail without a ton of dilution.
I garnish these guys with a slice of blood orange and a maraschino cherry. You have my permission to skip the orange slice, but do keep the cherry. Not only is it classic, but eating that guy after it’s marinated in a blood orange cocktail for awhile is literally the cherry-on-top delight.
Did you make this Bourbon Sour? I’d love to know how it turned out! Leave a comment and a rating below.
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Recipe
Blood Orange Bourbon Sour Cocktail
Print Recipe Rate this Recipe Pin RecipeRecommended Equipment
- Reamer
- Cocktail Shaker
Ingredients
- 1 oz blood orange juice
- 2 ¼ oz bourbon
- 1 oz simple syrup
- 1 oz lemon juice
- ½ oz lime juice
- 1 maraschino cherry
Instructions
- Roll a blood orange back and forth on a cutting board a few times to break up the flesh and release the juices. Cut the orange in half, then juice using a reamer or the tines of fork.
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour 1 oz blood orange juice, bourbon, simple syrup, lemon juice, and lime juice into the shaker. Stir until the shaker frosts.
- Place 1 large ice cube into a cocktail glass. Pour the blood orange cocktail into the glass and garnish with a blood orange slice and a maraschino cherry.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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Andy
I just made this cocktail for the first time, and I really enjoyed it. The balance of bourbon and citrus works quite well–no one flavor is overpowering. If you like your drinks a bit less sour, you’re probably not thinking of trying this recipe, but if you were, I would imagine you could reduce the lemon juice to 1/2 oz or maybe cut 1/4 oz off both the lemon and lime juice.
Nataly
LOVE! Easy to make. Its the adult version of sour candy
Julie Budnik
This thing is addictive.
Gail Van Brunt
Blood oranges in at Whole Foods so I came right home and mixed up this cocktail–so delicious, made exactly as you specified!
Rachel
Really great cocktail!! Truly. Delicious. ! I make my simple syrup with equal parts water and sugar. I think if I made it the way this recipe suggests (1:2 water:sugar) it would have been too sweet.
Clara
This was undrinkably sweet. I ran out of blood oranges or would have tried it again with a half ounce of simple syrup, or maybe even less.
Azza
I made it with 1/2 oz of 1:1 simple syrup and it was perfect for my taste.
Jenny
I love this. I make it with Buffalo trace. So good.
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