One of my favourite cocktails is the Vieux Mot. You may need to fiddle with the proportions from that recipe a bit, that much simple syrup and elderflower liquer makes for a very sweet drink. I like mine a bit tart, if it’s too sweet it just tastes sticky to me.
I also love bourbon (or whisky!) sours, more so the way my husband makes them. He uses honey syrup instead of regular simple syrup, which I think is tastier. He doesn’t do recipes, though, so all I can tell you about making honey syrup is that you put a dollop of honey in a little water and warm it up in the microwave. If it takes a couple of tries to get it right, I guess you’ll just have to drink the failed experiments 🙂
While we’re talking about variations on cocktails, try adding cherry bitters to a gin & tonic if you can find them. Seriously, it’s really good.
I’m actually not sure if I’ve ever had a proper whisky sour. My sweetie is more into lemon/sour things than I am, but also into more sweet stuff. We have a cocktail book called The Architecture of the Coctail, though, that gives lots of recipes (and also have one from the library called Tequila Mockingbird…all literature themed :D). My current fave is the Robbie Burns (scotch + benedictine + sweet vermouth), though I’ve been replacing the vermouth with cointreau and swapping out various other whiskies as we run low on scotch.
Also Black Russians are my jam. If you’re out of vodka, though, light rum + Kahlua works just as well. (But what to call it? A Black Havana…?)