The Bourbon Renewal is a bourbon sour with a single, well-judged addition: crème de cassis, the dark blackcurrant liqueur, which deepens the drink without tipping it sweet. Created in 2008 by the Oregon bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, it has since become one of the most reliably cited modern recipes — a drink bartenders recommend precisely because it is easy to like and hard to get wrong.
A sour needs a reason to exist beyond sweet and sharp. Cassis is this one's.
An Oregon Bartender's Calling Card
Jeffrey Morgenthaler built the Bourbon Renewal in 2008, early in a career that would make him one of the most-read voices in American bartending. It is a working drink, not a showpiece: a whiskey sour given depth and a faint berry darkness by crème de cassis. Morgenthaler has always been candid that it is a small idea executed precisely — which is exactly why it travelled.
The Spec
The frame is the classic sour — spirit, citrus, sweet — with the sweetener split between plain simple syrup and crème de cassis. A single dash of Angostura ties the parts together and keeps the cassis from reading as candy.
Crème de Cassis, Used With Restraint
Cassis is intensely sweet and intensely coloured; a half-ounce is plenty. More than that and the drink slides toward blackcurrant cordial. The point is a whisper of dark fruit beneath the bourbon — not a berry drink.
Bitters Are Not Optional
The lone dash of Angostura looks negligible on the page and is anything but. It is the seam that joins the lemon's brightness, the cassis's fruit, and the bourbon's grain into one drink rather than three. Leave it out and the Renewal tastes unfinished.
Bottom Line
The Bourbon Renewal earns its place by being genuinely useful: a sour with a little more to say, served long over ice, welcome in almost any weather. If you already keep a bottle of cassis for a Kir, this is the better reason to own it.