Who Invented the Whiskey Sour? Jerry Thomas, Elliott Stubb and the Record

Nobody is credibly named as the inventor of the Whiskey Sour. The drink grew out of a family — spirit, citrus, sugar — that was already on American bar lists before anyone wrote down a whiskey version, and by the time the name turns up in a newspaper it is being used as something readers already know. The one inventor story with a name and a date attached, an English ship's steward in Peru in 1872, is a legend, and the dates in the printed record make it impossible as told.

This guide sets out what the record shows, where popular accounts get it wrong — including the widely repeated claim that the Whiskey Sour first appeared in Jerry Thomas's 1862 bartender's guide — and what can be said with confidence. The longer arc is in the history of the Whiskey Sour.

The Short Answer

No one is credibly named. The sour template is in Jerry Thomas's 1862 book with brandy, gin and rum; the Oxford Companion cites Whisky Sour recipes in Haney's 1869 manual and an even earlier mention, from 1826; and "whisky sour" is in a Wisconsin newspaper by January 1870. The Elliott Stubb story — Iquique, 1872 — is legend. The honest answer is an unknown American bartender, sometime before 1870, putting whiskey into a drink formula that bars were already making with every other spirit.

Jerry Thomas and the 1862 Claim

Many accounts, PUNCH's among them, say the Whiskey Sour's "first printed record" is Jerry Thomas's 1862 How to Mix Drinks. Check the book and the claim needs a qualification. The 1862 edition contains sours — its index lists a Brandy Sour, a Gin Sour and a Santa Cruz Sour (Santa Cruz being a rum) — and they are the first known written sour recipes. It contains no recipe titled "Whiskey Sour." Neither does an 1882 printing of the guide, which still lists only the brandy, gin and Santa Cruz versions.

A Whiskey Sour by name appears in the posthumous 1887 "Entirely New and Enlarged" edition: the juice of half a small lemon, a large teaspoonful of powdered white sugar dissolved in a little seltzer or Apollinaris water, "1 wine-glass of Bourbon or rye whiskey," the glass filled with shaved ice, shaken and strained into a claret glass, and "ornament with berries." Sources that say the drink was first printed in 1862 are pointing at the sour template, not at a Whiskey Sour by name. The 1876 edition could not be checked directly for this guide.

The 1870 Newspaper

The earliest newspaper mention of a "whisky sour" cited by Difford's and PUNCH is in the Waukesha Plaindealer, a Wisconsin paper, on 4 January 1870. Difford's and PUNCH both point to it, and the useful detail is what the paper does not do: it does not explain the drink. By 1870 a whisky sour "required no explanation," which means it had been ordered across American bars for some time before anyone thought to print the words. That is typical of cocktail origins — the drink is common before it is documented.

The Oxford Companion goes further back. Paul Clarke's entry on the Whisky Sour places the drink in print "as early as 1826," dates its reappearance to 1862, and cites Whisky Sour recipes in Haney's Steward and Barkeeper's Manual of 1869. The Companion does not explain its 1826 and 1862 sightings, and the 1862 date sits awkwardly with the 1862 Thomas text, which has no Whiskey Sour. Haney's manual is the firmer point: a printed recipe a year before the Wisconsin newspaper and nearly two decades before the 1887 Thomas edition. All of it puts the drink well before 1872.

The Elliott Stubb Legend

The story with a hero runs like this: Elliott (sometimes Elliot) Stubb, an English ship's steward, settled in the port of Iquique — then in Peru, now in Chile — and in 1872 invented the whisky sour using the local Limón de Pica. It is repeated widely, often as fact.

It does not hold up. The story is in print by 1962, when a Universidad de Cuyo publication cited a report in El Comercio de Iquique (Wikipedia), and it became a popular Chilean legend in the 1980s. Difford's points out that the story was told as the origin of the Pisco Sour, but the quote attributed to Stubb was actually about the whiskey sour, the Pisco Sour's forerunner — and that the Whiskey Sour's "origins lie even earlier in the United States." The simplest problem is the date: a drink that a Wisconsin newspaper could name without explanation in January 1870 cannot have been invented in Iquique in 1872. Treat it as folklore that links the Whiskey Sour to its descendant, the Pisco Sour.

Where the Sour Came From

The sour family is older than any of these dates. Difford's credits the British Navy with popularizing, if not inventing, the template: rum rations mixed with lime juice "to combat scurvy and malnutrition" — hence "limeys" — produced grog, a daiquiri-like proto-sour. David Wondrich classes sours among "The Children of Punch": spirit, citrus, sugar and water, scaled down from the bowl to the single glass. By 1856 a "Sour" was on the drinks list at a Toronto saloon; by 1862 Thomas was printing brandy, gin and rum versions. Whiskey was the obvious next spirit, and in America the obvious spirit full stop.

What the Record Supports

• The template — spirit, lemon, sugar, shaken with ice — was in print by 1862, with brandy, gin and rum.
• Printed recipes by the name go back at least to Haney's 1869 manual, per the Oxford Companion.
• The name "whisky sour" was in common use by January 1870, and possibly in print as early as 1826.
• The first Whiskey Sour recipe by name in Thomas's guide is in the 1887 edition, published after his death, which allows "Bourbon or rye."
• No individual inventor is documented. The Stubb story is legend.

After that the drink took off. In 1879 the Atlanta Daily Constitution could write "When American meets American then comes the whisky sour," and Wondrich's summary is that "from roughly the 1860s to the 1960s, the Sour, and particularly its whiskey incarnation, was one of the cardinal points of American drinking." The red-wine float that became the New York Sour was in Chicago bars by 1883; egg white, which makes the Boston Sour, is attested by 1922.

Why "Bourbon or Rye" Matters

The 1887 Thomas recipe gives a choice of whiskey, and both are original. That matters for how the drink is made today. Most modern specs — the IBA, Difford's, PUNCH's recipe — default to bourbon; the 1887 Thomas edition's "Bourbon or rye" is the historical warrant for the rye version this site builds around, and PUNCH's 2017 judges thought rye "the stronger choice." The case is made in why rye works in a Whiskey Sour, and the recipe it argues for is the rye Whiskey Sour.

Further Reading in the Archive

• The History of the Whiskey Sour — from 1862 to the craft revival.
• What Is a Whiskey Sour? — the definition and the family.
• Why Rye Works in a Whiskey Sour — the structural case.
• Rye Whiskey Sour: Why Rye — the rye edition for rye + sour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who invented the Whiskey Sour?

Nobody is credibly named. The sour template is in Jerry Thomas's 1862 guide with brandy, gin and rum; the Oxford Companion cites Whisky Sour recipes in Haney's 1869 manual and an 1826 mention, and "whisky sour" is in the Waukesha Plaindealer by January 1870. The Elliott Stubb story is legend.

Was the Whiskey Sour in Jerry Thomas's 1862 book?

Not by name. The 1862 edition has a Brandy Sour, Gin Sour and Santa Cruz Sour — the first known written sour recipes — but no Whiskey Sour. A Whiskey Sour appears in the posthumous 1887 edition, specifying "Bourbon or rye whiskey."

When was the Whiskey Sour first mentioned in print?

The earliest newspaper mention cited by Difford's and PUNCH is the Waukesha Plaindealer of Wisconsin, 4 January 1870, by which time the drink needed no explanation. Printed recipes are older: the Oxford Companion cites Whisky Sour recipes in Haney's 1869 manual, and places the drink in print as early as 1826.

Did Elliott Stubb invent the Whiskey Sour in 1872?

No. The story of the English ship's steward in Iquique (then Peru) is in print by 1962, citing El Comercio de Iquique, and became popular in Chile in the 1980s. Difford's notes the quote attributed to Stubb was actually about the Whiskey Sour, the Pisco Sour's forerunner, and the drink was already in print in the United States by 1870.

Where does the sour come from?

Difford's credits the British Navy's rum-and-lime rations, issued against scurvy, with popularizing the template; David Wondrich classes sours among "The Children of Punch." A Sour was on a Toronto saloon's drinks list by 1856.

Was the original Whiskey Sour made with rye or bourbon?

Either. The 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas's guide, published after his death, specifies "1 wine-glass of Bourbon or rye whiskey." Both are original.