Get me a simple drink, and please, do it the old-fashioned way. And so, the title “Old Fashioned” was here to stay. The cocktail is a simple combination of whiskey, Bitters, Sodas, and sugar with a history going back to the early 1800s, long before the word “cocktail” was ever a thing. The first time “cocktail” was printed, the “good Old Fashioned” was alongside it.
In terms of importance, nothing compares to the Old Fashioned. To drink one is to taste the original, primordial cocktail, one that’s generally nevertheless made according to the oldest recognized cocktail recipe, dating back to the ninth century.
Back then, of course, a cocktail wasn’t “old-fashioned” so much as it was “new-fangled,” and therefore typically unknown defining a cocktail for all posterity as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters.” Aside from the missing orange peel, most drinkers will recognize those ingredients as a blueprint for what we now know as Old Fashioned.
The drink wouldn’t earn that specific name, however, for decades. With the arrival of newly imported liqueurs and spirits in the mid-19th century, bartenders started making dozens of new recipes, as described through Jerry Thomas in “The Bar-Tender’s Guide,” whose 1862 version consists of then-innovative drinks like the Brandy Crusta and the Crimean Cup. That book additionally consists of an “old-fashioned” gin cocktail, made with just spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. As greater “improved” and “modern” cocktails had been being dressed up with newly accessible liqueurs and enhancers like curaçao, Maraschino, and absinthe, old-timers and traditionalists kept asking for “old-fashioned” versions. Their pleas for less difficult concoctions finally grew to become a recipe itself.
After many times going in and out of style, the Old Fashioned is once again extraordinarily popular. Though the base spirit can be nearly whatever (mezcal and aged rum are trendy these days), brandy, bourbon, and rye are typically viewed the most traditionally accurate. Technically, you can make an Old Fashioned with just about whatever in your home bar. For a nuanced shift, think about making one with blended Scotch, which gives a stylish take on the basic that flawlessly hits all of the standard notes: Just like the original, a blended Scotch Old Fashioned is deliciously bitter, sweet, rich, and smoothly balanced. At the same time, blended Scotch gives surprising — and scrumptious — new possibilities.
While clove-heavy, cinnamon-scented Angostura bitters are the normal preference for a rye or bourbon Old Fashioned, the grassy, floral, salty, and smoky flavors of Scotch can provide way to a distinctive spectrum of bitters, which includes orange, lemon, and grapefruit, as nicely as a range of sugars and sweeteners.
It’s not simply the components of the Scotch Old Fashioned that welcome variation: Temperatures can be reinterpreted as well. Because Scotch opens up so nicely at room temperature, you can even omit the ice in a Scotch Old Fashioned, constructing the drink with simple water — simply like the authentic cocktail from 1806.
When it comes to garniture, feel free to go as heavy or simple as you see fit. A “fruit salad” method was extensively popular in earlier eras, and it’s still the way people make the Old Fashioned in many areas today. A blended Scotch Old Fashioned works excellent with an easy pull of orange peel — flamed, if you’re feeling inspired. When it comes to the most traditional of all cocktails, easy and simple has worked for over 200 years.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 ounces Bulleit Bourbon
- 3/4 ounce 1:1 simple syrup
- 3 dashes aromatic bitters
- Orange peel
THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY
Perhaps one of the selling points of the old-Fashioned cocktail is the simplicity of its preparation. All you need is a glass, water, sugar, whiskey, ice, and bitters. Here are a few easy steps.
• Put some sugar in a glass
• Cover it with about two dashes of bitters
• Add some jiggers of whiskey and a splash of water, stir till the sugar dissolves
• Add a chunk of ice and stir a bit more
Now you understand how it is made; you will know when the bartender is not doing it right. And what’s more, you can do it yourself, the Old-Fashioned way
DIRECTIONS
- Combine ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass and stir well.
- Serve in a low-ball glass over ice.
- Twist a piece of orange zest over the glass to release aromatic oils.
- Garnish with an orange peel.
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