The Old Fashioned

A great Old Fashioned holds all things in balance: subtly boozy, gentle sweetness, and mild spice from the bitters.

Elegance in simplicity.

Below is my standard recipe for an Old Fashioned, and the great thing is you can sub out some (or all) of the components for other ingredients within the same category to create something uniquely yours.

Recipe: Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Whiskey(not something exceptionally high proof. Should be something you dont mind drinking on its own though: Old Forester 86, Henry McKenna,  Elijah Craig, or similar)(or another spirit of choice: i.e. tequila, rum, gin… even vodka)
• 0.5 oz simple syrup (or another sweetener/liqueur: maple syrup, Luxardo, amaretto, etc.)
• 4 dashes Angostura bitters (or literally any other bitters)
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Build:

While technically this should be built in a mixing glass and strained over fresh ice (or a large cube) to serve… let’s be honest, who wants to do that at home? If you agree, skip to step 3.

1. In a mixing glass with ice, add all ingredients and stir to chill.
2. Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice or a large cube.
3. Alternatively, add all ingredients directly to a rocks glass with ice and stir to chill.
4. In both cases, garnish with a cocktail cherry and orange twist… or don’t (it’s your drink).
5. Serve and enjoy.

Note:

Just as you play with the base ingredients, have fun with the garnishes too.

Make one with Kahlúa instead of simple and garnish with coffee beans.

Use maple syrup and garnish with a piece of bacon.

The possibilities are endless.

The origin of the Old Fashioned starts with the origin of the cocktail, or at least the term cocktail.

The original definition, published in The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1806, was: “A stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters… vulgarly called a bittered sling.”

If this sounds familiar, it should, because it’s essentially the recipe for an Old Fashioned (even if we don’t know the exact proportions… so maybe not exactly, but close enough).

For decades, this was the standard definition of a cocktail. That is, until the late 1800s, when cocktails began to evolve to include citrus, vermouth, and other ingredients that deviated from that original formula.

It’s around this time that the term “old fashioned” starts popping up. Legend has it that bar patrons, longing for the original style, would order their drinks “the old fashioned way” for example: “I’ll take a whiskey cocktail, the old fashioned way.”

And while today an Old Fashioned is almost unquestionably made with whiskey, I’d argue we should extend them to other spirits, as they were originally, and let them shine.