Whiskey Daisy

Here’s an easy cocktail to pick – The Whiskey Daisy. 

If you’ve ever wished for a carbonated version of the classic Whiskey Sour or a lighter version of the Bourbon Sidecar, then this cocktail is a dream come true. Born out of desperation and creativity during Prohibition, the Whiskey Daisy is really just an accidental variation on the Brandy Daisy. The brandy-laced libation was first featured in Jerry Thomas’s iconic bar book, “Bar-Tender’s Guide” in 1862. This guide wasn’t just any old book – it created the first written recipes for flips, sours, fizzes, the Tom Collins, and the Brandy Daisy.

As the name suggests, this cocktail used a brandy base along with lemon juice, orange curaçao, a bit of dark rum, gum syrup, and soda water. It was quite the innovation for the time, but once Prohibition hit, bartenders couldn’t afford to keep to an exact recipe. Variations like the Gin Daisy (considered to be the original version of a Cosmopolitan) began to pop up with bartenders cleverly substituting ingredients or just removing them altogether. Enter the Whiskey Daisy. 

Considering the era it emerged from, it’s understandable why there’s no record of who, when, or where the Whiskey Daisy originally came from. And by the time alcohol was legal again, there were so many versions of the Daisy it was hard to nail down exactly what the cocktail included. A record from the 1940 called for raspberry syrup and powdered syrup, for example. But this recipe gets back to Jerry Thomas’s original – whiskey, orange curaçao, simple syrup, lemon juice, and club soda. No gum syrup or raspberries required. As far as the whiskey goes, we personally prefer the spicy balance of rye, but bourbon lends a sweet backdrop to this citrusy cocktail. 

With either whiskey you choose, the Whiskey Daisy will have you feeling as fresh as a daisy.