Our Homemade Sour Mix is the perfect thing to take your cocktails to the next level! Made with just 3 ingredients in about 15 minutes! Making sour mix from scratch is our favorite way to elevate our drinks and you’ll love it too.
Mm hmm. You could totally buy a bottle of the neon yellow sweet and sour mix from the store. You probably have. You probably still do. You should totally stop.
Our homemade sour mix is so simple to make and let me tell you, it’s way better than the weird gloopy stuff you buy in the bottle at the store. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in that stuff? Barf.
We use our homemade sour mix to make my favorite Vodka Collins and to take our famous margaritas on the rocks to the next level.
🍋Ingredients Notes
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Lemon Juice: We juice fresh lemons for this recipe. You’ll need around 5-6 lemons to make 1 cup of lemon juice.
Lime Juice: You’ll want fresh here too! It’ll take around 8 limes to make 1 cup of juice.
Simple Syrup: We’ll make a simple syrup by boiling water and dissolving sugar in it. Easy peasy!
What We Love About This Recipe:
- Sour mix is often the start of a good cocktail, so starting with a quality homemade sour mix really starts your drink off on the right foot!
- This recipe takes about 15 minutes – juice the fruit, boil some water and sugar, and combine!
- You can customize this to be more sweet or sour, depending on your preferences.
- Buying pre-made sour mix can be expensive, especially if you drink it often. Making your own sour mix can be a cost-effective alternative, as you can use simple ingredients like sugar, citrus juice, and water, which are readily available and fairly inexpensive.
🍹 How to Make Homemade Sweet and Sour Mix
Boil: Bring your water to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiling, stir in the sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved.
Juice: Use your favorite tool for juicing your lemons and limes to create 1 cup of juice each. Stir that into your simple syrup.
Cool: You’ll want to let this cool before using it to make your favorite cocktails. We store this in a mason jar in the fridge. It lasts 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
Equipment Needed
Sauce Pan: You’ll need a sauce pan for boiling the water.
Citrus Juicer: Easy to use and easy to clean! It makes juicing a breeze.
Manual Juicer: This is a more economical version of a citrus juicer. You’ll need a little elbow grease, but we use this tool often in our house!
Mason Jars: These make storing your homemade sour mix a breeze. Plus, the ones I linked are pink and who doesn’t love a pretty jar?
FAQ:
Homemade sour mix is made of fresh lemon and lime juice along with a mixture of sugar and water. Store bought mixes have a lot of preservatives and artificial flavors added.
The two are very similar, but margarita mix typically consists of just lime juice while sour mix contains lemon juice as well. We use sour mix in our homemade margaritas.
We store our sour mix in the fridge, tightly sealed, for 2-3 weeks.
More Cocktail Favorites
We love cocktails in this house! Here are a few other favorites that we enjoy sharing with friends:
Homemade Sour Mix
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Bring the water to a boil in a small pot. Stir in the sugar until dissolved and remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon and lime juice.
- Store covered in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in November 2012. It was updated with new photos and text in March 2023. Original photo below.
Stpehanie says
Did you squeeze lemons and limes or purchase the real lemon/lime juice?
Karly says
I used fresh lemons and limes.
Denise Gunnels says
I have been using this mix for a couple of years now. Mostly I make margaritas with it but it works for any drink made with a sour mix. Whiskey sours, Tom Collins, etc.. Just wanted to thank you for it. For some reason my husband has a reaction to most bottled sour/margarita mixes. No idea why but I can make this on the road as well as at home.
My tweaks: I use turbinado sugar if I can. If I want a lower calorie drink I do half sugar and half splenda.
Karly says
I’m so glad to hear this works out for you guys! 🙂 Wouldn’t want the hubby to have to go without some yummy cocktails!
Elaine @ Dishes Delish says
This is so awesome! Once you make your own sweet and sour mix, you never go back. I almost always make my sweet and sour with either only lime or only lemon. I can’t wait to try this version.
Karly says
Homemade is definitely the way to go!
Natalie says
Do you know how long this would stay fresh in the fridge?
Karly says
I haven’t tried keeping it longer than a week.
Susan d says
Elevate your cocktails with this super simple base recipe! Has anyone tried to freeze this? Maybe in ice cube trays? Always like to have it on hand and seems like I never have enough!
Karly says
I haven’t tried freezing it, but I think it would work fine. 🙂 Glad you enjoy the recipe!
Holly Mo says
Fantastic! Just made a batch and enjoying a Vodka Collins right now!
Bernice says
Do you know if I can use a sugar substitute like Splenda to make this?