Sourest Day

Are you a fan of the pucker? The Sultan of sour? Do you love that tight feeling you get at the back of your mouth when you chomp down on a lemon or find Warhead candies to be the absolute best thing in the world? Maybe you go for a subtler sour, like that found in lemon-flavored cookies and cakes, or the delightful bite of rhubarb. Maybe you just have a particularly sour attitude or know someone who does? If any of these are true for you, Sourest Day is going to be your new favorite holiday… Or not. Sourpuss.

Learn about Sourest Day

Nothing is so sour that it can’t be sweetened by a good attitude.

Woodrow M. Kroll

There are two types of sour in this world. Firstly, there is the great type of sour… those amazingly sour sweets that make you pull a silly face! Secondly, there are those sour attitudes! It is up to you how you choose to go about this day. Do you want to pay tribute to the sour sweets of this world? You can eat as many as you can handle. We won’t tell anyone! Or, do you want to spend the day in a mist of doom and gloom? That’s right; you can take your levels of sulking to new lows if that’s what you want to do. Just make sure you don’t carry this attitude into the following day. Get it out of your system!

History of Sourest Day

This day was created by Richard Ankli of Michigan’s Ann Arbor back in 1977. Richard created the date to honor his friend who had the last name ‘Sauer’ and since then, the date has gone from strength-to-strength, with so many people embracing it!

Sourest Day is now to celebrate all the sour things in the world, and while sour attitudes are included in this, sour foods have got to be one of our favorite things, and believe us when we say there are more than a few different options when it comes to sour foods. Shall we start with the natural, off-the-vine, and out of the ground ones? We shall!

Oranges are actually considered a sour fruit (in part because of the high Vitamin C content) and are one of our favorites! Limes are a bit sourer on the sour chart, and go great in a variety of drinks and on tacos, and then there’s the mainstay of summertime drinks and hot cups of tea, lemons! Of course, none of these have a thing on the incredibly delicious but mouth-puckeringly sour rhubarb, best served snapped straight off the ripe plant.

Then of course we have sour cream, buttermilk, and the delicious pickled cabbage that is sauerkraut. But none of these hold a candle to those most evil creation of our sour-loving kin, the sour candies. For those with a mild tolerance for sour, there’s a joy to be had in the Sourpatch Kids candies, gummy candies covered in crystalline citric acid, the same thing that makes Lemons sour. But Sourpatch Kids are just the start, and for those true connoisseurs of sour, there’s the Warhead candies, a candy so powerfully sour they actually had to reduce how sour they were during their original run! Now that’s sour!

How to celebrate Sourest Day

Sourest Day is best celebrated by indulging in all your favorite sour treats, and maybe, just for humors sake, to put on the sourest attitude you can imagine. Know someone who has a tendency to be a Debbie-downer and have a seriously bad attitude? Give them a sour food gift-basket to show that not everyone thinks they need to change.

There are plenty of other ways that you can celebrate Sourest Day. One of our favorite things to do is enjoy a whiskey sour. If you have never had this cocktail before and you are a fan of sour flavors, you are in for a big treat. You will need lemon zest, ice, egg white, Angostura bitters, sugar syrup, lemon juice, and bourbon for this cocktail. You may think that it is weird to include egg whites in a drink, but we promise that it does not taste like an egg! Rather, this ingredient is added in order to give the cocktail a silky texture, which is delicious, we promise!

There are plenty of other sour recipes that you can indulge in on this date. Of course, you know all about the sour sweets that you can find in stores today. However, you can also carry the theme on to your dinner as well. How about some Sweet and Sour Chicken? This classic Chinese dish is one of the most popular around the world for those who are fans of Asian cuisine. Of course, you can make Sweet and Sour with other meats, prawns, or you could do a meat-free version. It is the sauce that really matters.

If you’re looking for a short-cut, you can use ketchup, malt vinegar, garlic cloves, and dark muscovado to create it. A lot of people also incorporate pineapple, red peppers, and onions as well. Why not invite some loved ones around and you can enjoy a dinner party, with whiskey sours on hand as well? It is the perfect excuse to get everyone together and show off your great cooking skills. If you do go down this route, try to serve your guests with a smile on your face, rather than being a sourpuss!