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.
Stacy says
Just made this last night and it was great! Taste just like our hard to beat favorite margaritas at a near by restaurant. A keeper!
Susan says
Can this be frozen?
Karly says
Hi Susan!
That’s a really good question, but unfortunately I don’t know the answer! I’ve never tried freezing it, but I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work. If you do try it, please come back and let us know!
Thanks!
Karly
Diane Stalzer says
Since there is no alcohol, it should freeze and keep just fine. It’s just a popsicle base. In fact you could make your own popsicles by adding whatever flavoring you like.
Holly W says
How Simple is that?! and I could use whatever sweetener I would like, I imagine, since I don’t do a whole lot of sugar. Thank YOU!
Lauren Carnes says
What a great idea! I bet it tastes 10 times better than store bought!
Cathy @ Savory Notes says
I hate the jugs of sugar-fake-crap sour mix they sell at stores. I definitely agree that it’s worth making from scratch 🙂
Marisa says
I know by “bar” it is meant one of those crazy places downtown or whatnot. But might I challenge you to make some sort of delicious sweet and sour DESSERT bar? We’re major lemon bar fans in my family.
Jennifer says
wow Karly! Do you know how many times I have wanted a stone sour and didn’t have the sweet n sour mix? This would have been so awesome to know. lol Thanks!
Meghan @ The Tasty Fork says
Awesome! I’ve never thought to make this but now I will. I despise all of those pre-made mixes. So gross. Just looking at them make my teeth hurt.
Joanne says
I’ve never bought one of those mixes…and now I never will! This is calling to me.
sally @ sallys Baking Addiction says
that’s ALL that is in sour mix???? I’ve worked at a bar before and I never knew this. Why on earth don’t i make it myself? margaritas are only my FAVORITE thing on the planet besides peanut butter. Karly, i love you.
Becca from It's Yummilicious says
I don’t drink alcohol, so I’ll take a gallon of this with a straw to go, please… PINNING to my DIY / copycat board, too!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
I cannot wait to see the drink! I’m thirsty just thinking about it…
Hayley @ The Domestic Rebel says
Midori Sours. By far my favoritest drink in all the land, and they are made with sweet + sour. Gimme, gimme.
Cookbook Queen says
Best idea ever!! Soon I’ll actually be able to use this stuff again, so I need to get some ready!! Margaritas all around!!!!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
This sounds awesome! Love this idea!