
One of my favorite things to do when traveling to new countries is to bring back a bottle of their signature alcohol. My favorite Greek island is Corfu (don’t @ me…I’ve seen plenty of other islands) and they are known for their kumquat liquor. You can find bottles of this at most of the souvenir shops around the island, but also by visiting the actual distilleries. I have 3 bottles in my cabinet, so I finally decided to make a kumquat bourbon sour cocktail featuring this liquor.
The liquor itself is normally drank similar to a limoncello. And as the kumquat is a citrus, it is made in the same way. To drink it by itself is fine in small doses, but it can be a bit cloying if you want to drink a lot of it. The solution? Make it into a cocktail. I’ve also used it in my Summer on Corfu cocktail, as well as a Blood and Snow.
Kumquat Liquor (also spelled Koumquat) is sweet as well as sour, so for this recipe I did not add any sugar, and only 1/4 tsp of lemon juice. I really wanted to focus on using a good bourbon and letting the kumquat flavor shine in this kumquat bourbon sour.

Kumquat Bourbon Sour Ingredients
- 50 ml Bourbon Whiskey. As you can see in the pictures I used Buffalo Trace, which is my favorite mass produced bourbon.
- 25 ml Kumquat Liquor. If you can’t get to Corfu to buy a bottle, you can find them online, or make your own the same way you would make a limoncello.
- 1/4 tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 slice Candied Lemon; for garnish
Along with crystal rocks glasses, I used this spherical ice mold so I could put one large ice ball in each glass. I find making ice balls waters down the cocktail a lot less than using many ice cubes. You can also buy the rocks glasses here.

Kumquat Bourbon Sour
Equipment
- Rocks Glass
Ingredients
- 50 ml Bourbon Whiskey
- 25 ml Kumquat Liquor Also spelled as Koumquat
- 1/4 tsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker add all the ingredients and shake. Strain into a rocks glass with a large ice sphere and garnish with a slice of candied lemon. Serve.