Understanding Citrus, Sour, and Acidity

How does acidity work in a drink, what makes it sour, and what type of citrus should we be using in our cocktails? Today we're going to break down the understanding of citrus, sour, and acidity in your drink. It matters.

pH is the measure of acidity, and each ingredient falls differently on the scale — although lemon and lime both come in around a 2 on the pH scale. Remember, a pH of 0 is battery acid, so the cocktails we're making tend to be pretty acidic overall. Acidity needs to be balanced with sweet, but it's a delicate golden ratio of flavor. We can also use cocktail modifying agents to keep our sour cocktails well balanced yet with more interesting taste profiles.

Citrus, sour, and acidity all play a role in cocktail creation. Without citrus, a cocktail lacks depth and tends to be sugary sweet — even when it's just using liqueurs. When you play a sweet, you often should also play a sour, with a few notable exceptions such as the Piña Colada. Yet even that has pineapple juice, which often has ascorbic acid as well as other fairly intense acidity — but it's not really sour due to the total sugars, much like orange juice.

Pairing Citrus with Your Spirit

Citrus plays a pivotal role in your cocktail recipe designs. In general, you'll pair lemons with brown spirits and limes with clear spirits — but there are always great exceptions to this rule. You'll also find grapefruit juice, with a less sour but still tart bite, often works well in combination with lime juice.

Of course, always fresh squeeze your citrus!