old_fashioned_cocktail

The Old-Fashioned: Dress up Your Whiskey in Classic Style

• 3 mins
• Prep: 3 mins,
• Cook: 0 mins
• Yield: 1 serving

A sugar cube soaked in bitters, a shot of whiskey, and an orange peel; creating an impressive and timeless cocktail really is that easy. The drink is the one and only old-fashioned and it is one of the best ways to enjoy your favorite bourbon or rye whiskey.

The old-fashioned is a classic whiskey cocktail that has been served since the mid-1800's. It is exactly what its name indicates: an "old-fashioned" cocktail, and it is as popular today as it was when bartenders first poured it.

What is the appeal of the old-fashioned? Quite simply, it's a fantastic way to dress up a glass of whiskey. If you're a traditionalist, choose a great rye whiskey, but bourbon is a perfect choice as well. The sweet, bitter, and fruit flavors added to the glass will enhance any whiskey you pour. There are also a number of ways to make this your own, so let's look at all of your old-fashioned options.

What You'll Need

• 1 sugar cube
• 2–3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey
• Optional: orange peel for garnish
• Optional: maraschino cherry for garnish ​

How to Make It

1. Place the sugar cube at the bottom of an old-fashioned glass.
2. Saturate the cube with bitters and muddle.
3. Fill the glass with ice (the larger the cubes, the better).
4. Add the whiskey.
5. Stir well.
6. Garnish with an orange peel and cherry.

The Old-Fashioned Today

It's common for drinks to morph and evolve over the years. This is especially true when we're talking about one of the very first cocktails and today there are many variations on the old-fashioned.

Rye whiskey was the original choice for the old-fashioned. Over the years, the selection of good ryes dwindled so bourbon became the go-to substitute. While bourbon remains a favorite for many drinkers, we also have the luxury of a burgeoning rye market. It's difficult to choose a bad whiskey for this drink and it's a great venue to try out new finds, so pour whatever you like.

Quite often, bartenders will top the drink with a splash of club soda. That is not a traditional method and old-timers would certainly scoff at its use. Even the maraschino cherry is not original and, honestly, it's not necessary for anything other than making the drink look a little fancier.

The point of the old-fashioned is to avoid adding too much to it so you can allow the whiskey to shine. The best old-fashioned drinks are simple and because of that, it's important to pay close attention to each element.

To Muddle the Orange or Not

Did you notice that the recipe does not call for a muddled orange? Muddling the fruit with the sugar and bitters is another modern twist, though the earliest old-fashioneds barely used it as a garnish.

If you prefer, follow the lead of some bartenders and muddle a whole orange slice with the bitters-soaked sugar cube. You will find others who muddle the orange peel and still others who pair a lemon peel with certain whiskeys. It's all a matter of personal choice.

Should you choose not to muddle the peel, express it over the drink before dropping it into the glass. To do this, simply twist up the peel and give it a good squeeze (directed toward the glass and not your eyes) and bits of citrus oils will spray into the drink.

An Old-Fashioned Cocktail a Century Ago

The story of the old-fashioned is something modern drinkers can relate to. This cocktail sparked the same debates in the late 19th century bar scene that modern "martini" menus bring up today. It's actually funny to think that the old-fashioned was "old-fashioned" over a hundred years ago, but it's true.

It was around the 1880s and 90's that the American cocktail scene really got going. Drinks were being created with curacao, absinthe, syrups, and fruit juices and they were a hit. There were, of course, the holdouts, those nostalgic drinkers who wanted a simple drink with a kick like they got in the "old days." All of this fancy stuff was a waste of time.

Editorials were written in newspapers, arguments were raised in bars around the country, and soon the old-fashioned got its official name. It was first published under the name in Theodore Proulx's (of Chicago's famous Chapin and Gore saloon) 1888 "Bartenders Manual."

The Pendennis Club Myth

For decades, the story of the old-fashioned said that it was created in 1881 at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky. David Wondrich points out in "Imbibe!" that this is false.

The club did not open until 1881 and a year before that, "old-fashioned cocktails" were mentioned in the pages of the Chicago Tribune. There was even an "ambiguous newspaper squib" that mentioned old-fashioned drinks as early as 1869.

The Original Cocktail

In truth, the old-fashioned formula dates back to the 1850s, if not earlier.

Follow the Historical Advice on Ice

Wondrich's book is filled with interesting tidbits of bar trivia and it's one that every cocktail geek should own. Within the notes on the old-fashioned is a fascinating section about the proper ice to use in the drink.

It turns out that ice balls and 2-inch cubes are nothing new; they simply got lost in the American bar until recently. Wondrich references the large cube's use in 1899, ". mixologically ambitious saloons preferred to refrigerate their old-fashioned with ice cut into 'perfect cubes about two inches on a side'."

The same theory that we use for adding a chill and slight dilution to a glass of straight whiskey has long been preferred for the old-fashioned. Those fancy ice machines we've come to rely on and their tiny, fast-melting "cubes" ruined it for many years. If you are a devotee to the old-fashioned and have not made the switch to 2-inch ice, you'll find it to be the last step in perfecting this iconic drink.

How Strong Is the Old-Fashioned?

As you might imagine, the old-fashioned is not much lighter than a straight pour of whiskey. Essentially, we just need to factor in a little dilution. When we do, an old-fashioned with an 80-proof whiskey would be around 32 percent ABV (64 proof). Those old-timers would be happy to know that it still has that kick they were looking for.

Old Fashioned Cocktail

Ingredients (6)

• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
• 2 dashes angostura bitters
• 1 barspoon (1 teaspoon) club soda or water
• 2 ounces rye or bourbon whiskey
• Ice, preferably a single large cube
• Orange twist, for garnish

• Calories 162
• Fat
• Saturated fat
• Trans fat
• Carbs 4.11g
• Fiber
• Sugar 4.11g
• Protein
• Cholesterol
• Sodium 1.11mg
• Nutritional Analysis per serving (1 servings)Powered by

The classic Old Fashioned is whiskey with a bit of sugar, aromatic bitters, and dilution in some form, from a splash of either water or club soda. The earliest mention of an Old Fashioned–style drink is from 1806: Drinks writer Robert Simonson, author of The Old-Fashioned: The Story of the World’s First Classic Cocktail, calls this “the primordial cocktail,” older than either the martini or the Manhattan Drink.

What to buy: Finely milled superfine sugar dissolves rapidly, avoiding any risk of graininess in the finished drink.

Master all the classic cocktail recipes for your home bar with our whiskey sour recipe.

How to Make an Old Fashioned

When you're in the mood for a bonafide classic.

Basically the OG cocktail, the first reference to this drink—as well as the first published definition of the word "cocktail"—came in the May 13, 1806 edition of a newspaper called The Balance and Columbian Repository. It was there that the paper's editor referred to a cocktail as consisting of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar.

As for the name "Old Fashioned," that didn't come about until 1881, when a bartender at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky made the drink—this time with bourbon, bitters, club soda, muddled sugar, and ice—to honor Colonel James E. Pepper, a prominent bourbon distiller, who eventually brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City.

All of which is to say, it's a cocktail that's been around for a while. And for good reason. The subtle sweetness makes it smoother than a lot of other whiskey-based drinks, plus it just has that aura of Rat Pack cool. Fortunately, it's also an easy cocktail to make. Almost as easy as it is to drink.

Old Fashioned

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. Click here to learn more about the Old Fashioned.

The invention of the drink is frequently (and probably inaccurately) credited to a bartender at the Pendennis Club, in Louisville, Kentucky, who around the turn of the 20th century reportedly made the drink for Colonel James E. Pepper, a member of the club and by some accounts a prominent bourbon distiller.

There's a strikingly similar cocktail in Jerry Thomas's 1862 How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, called the "Whiskey Cocktail." What probably happened at Pendennis, says Robert Hess, founder of drinkboy.com and cofounder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, was that the bartender served a Whiskey Cocktail made the old-fashioned way — that is, the spirit combined with sugar, bitters, and water, the way cocktails were made as early as 1806.

Editor's note: Swap gin for whiskey in the recipe below, and you'll have an excellent Gin Old Fashioned.

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Ingredients

1. • 1 scant teaspoon simple syrup
   • 2 dashes Angostura Bitters, plus more to taste
   • 1 half dollar–sized slice orange peel, including pith
   • 2 ounces good-quality rye or bourbon
   • 1 maraschino cherry

Preparation

1. 1. In old-fashioned glass, combine simple syrup and bitters. Fill glass halfway with ice, then stir about a dozen times. Add enough ice to fill glass. Squeeze orange peel over glass to extract oils, add peel to glass, and add whiskey. Stir just until drink is cold and alcoholic bite has softened, about a dozen times. Garnish with cherry, swizzle stick, and straw.

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Nutritional Info

• Calories 225
• Carbohydrates 51 g(17%)
• Fat 1 g(1%)
• Protein 6 g(12%)
• Saturated Fat 0 g(1%)
• Sodium 5 mg(0%)
• Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
• Fiber 9 g(36%)
• Monounsaturated Fat 0 g

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Sound great- I tend not to like things too sweet and often find myself a little low on fresh oranges- I have been known to use a splash of Grand Marnier with great success. And no simple syrup or sugar- the Grand Marnier is sweet enough.

We stirred the drink in a cocktail shaker with ice and then poured over ice in a smoked glass. The cedar chip smoke added a nice additional flavour

I don't always have an orange around so I'll throw in a scant splash of OJ. The bourbon and bitter's taste still comes through.

I made this Old Fashioned, I was out of oranges but used a fresh lemon instead. It was the best Old Fashioned I have ever tasted. I used Texas Spirit Bourbon, some of you may be bourbon snobs but I love anything made my Texas Spirit and it costs a lot less than many other brands. Anyway this recipe was really really good.

I don't know what a wisconcin old fashioned is but the classic (traditional) old fashioned is made with whiskey (bourbon or rye whiskey)

At college in Wisconsin, there were "brandy old fashion sweets" and "brandy old fashion sours". Since I was drinking at the time, I never learned the actual ingredients - or I may have, but lost the recipe after too many nights of old fashions. They are truly a Wisconsin staple.

The Wisconsin Old Fashioned sounds interesting, (I'll try it this evening) but The Old Fashioned is a classic! My family switches to them in the winter, particularly around Christmas. Try it with Woodford Reserve!

Even though it was invented elsewhere it is a Wisconsin staple and is making a comeback in even the trendious clubs in Milwaukee and Chicago. Here's how I was taught to make it by my grandfather.<p> Fill an old fashioned glass with ice. Add 4 to 6 shakes of bitters. Add 1 Tbsp of Maraschino Cherry Juice (you can buy it in a bottle at the liquor store. Mix. Add 2 to 4 shots of Korbel Brandy (depending on how good or bad a day you have had) (^: Top off with 7UP or Sprite. Mix again just to combine and garnish with and orange slice and a cherry

Good to know the history/origin for small talk at the bar. To make it a real Wisconsin old fashioned, one uses brandy instead of whiskey.

I like the little kick the cocktail gets from the carbonation by using 7-Up in place of the simple syrup and water. I know that this is the authentic version, but this is my Wisconsin version.

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Old Fashioned Cocktail Recipe

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats]

The Old Fashioned is one of the most venerable of cocktails, predating not only the motorcar but the presidency of Abe Lincoln. Properly made, it's strong but not too strong, sweet but not too sweet, and, most importantly, it's dead-simple and absolutely delicious.

• Yield: Makes 1 cocktail
• Active time: 5 minutes
• Total time: 5 minutes
• Rated:

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon (5g) superfine sugar (or 1 sugar cube)
• 2 to 3 dashes bitters (Angostura is traditional and works well; Fee Brothers’ Whiskey Barrel-Aged Old Fashioned Bitters are better)
• 2 ounces (60ml) bourbon or rye whiskey
• Orange and/or cherry, to garnish (optional)

Directions

Place sugar in an Old Fashioned glass. Douse with bitters and add a few drops of water. Add whiskey and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add several large ice cubes and stir rapidly with a bar spoon to chill. Garnish, if you like, with a slice of orange and/or a cherry.

This Recipe Appears In

Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.

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Old-fashioned whisky cocktail

less than 30 mins

no cooking required

This whisky cocktail is an out-and-out classic of the 1960s that will make you feel like a sharp-suited Don Draper in no time.

Unfortunately we are unable to add this recipe to your favourites, please try again later.

Ingredients

• 1 thick slice orange peel
• 1 maraschino cherry, with stem
• 1 tsp sugar syrup (also sold as gomme syrup)
• 2-3 drops whisky bitters
• ice cubes, as necessary
• 50ml/2fl oz Scotch or bourbon
• twist of lemon peel, to garnish

Take the orange peel and squeeze it with your fingers. Rub the peel around the insides of a whisky tumbler, then place into the glass. Add the cherry, sugar syrup and bitters, along with three ice cubes.

Add half of the scotch or bourbon and stir for about ten seconds. Add more ice and the remaining scotch or bourbon and stir again for 10-15 seconds.

Mastering the Old Fashioned, One of the World's Finest Cocktails

A whiskey cocktail done the old fashioned way

Fitz seems like he knows his way around an old fashioned. He should. He’s been a daytime fixture behind the long piece of mahogany at Manhattan’s Old Town Bar on 18th Street for years. I am a little apprehensive mind you; this is hardly a temple to mixology and there are certainly several ways to screw up what is essentially a fairly simple and democratic libation.

From a rickety bar stool I watch as Fitz muddles three of those abominable red orbs posing as cherries with some sugar and a good eight dashes of Angostura bitters. A healthy slug of something unfamiliar called R.J. Hodges goes in, filled almost to overflowing. It’s a stiff drink that the weathered chaps who frequent this joint probably expect. Is this how I would make an old fashioned? No. Would I order another one? Probably not. But do I enjoy it? Strangely, yes. I pay the paltry $8 asking price and we exchange parting pleasantries.

Dear Irving's (NY) old fashioned. [Photo: Nick Solares]

Now, if my pickled memory serves me correctly, I started making rather terrible versions of what I thought was an old fashioned straight out of high school, more than two decades ago. I acquired these early recipes from various mediocre cocktail books that my mother had procured at my behest. This was the old fashioned as I knew it and even today, sadly, so does most of America. But first, a story.

There was once a drink called a "cocktail." So simple was it that back in 1806 it was defined as a mix of "spirits, sugar, water, and bitters." By today’s rather ambiguous interpretation of the term — which could include anything from a Vieux Carré to a Chocolate-Marshmallow-Cronut-Tini — that’s a pretty rudimentary sounding concoction. Everyone seemed okay with that.

Elements of an Old Fashioned

Whiskey: Both rye and bourbon offer different flavor profiles. Bourbon is slightly sweeter and rounder, whereas rye introduces a peppery bite. Either way, you’ll want something high in proof (over 100) as this extra alcohol will stand up to the dilution from melting ice. Try: Knob Creek, W.L. Weller Antique, Booker’s, Old Grand-Dad, Baker’s, Wild Turkey 101, Wild Turkey Rare Breed or Rittenhouse.

Glass: The old fashioned is one of the few drinks in existence that has a glass named in its honor. The ideal glass should be between eight to 10 ounces, with a thick heavy bottom.

Ice: This is a sipping cocktail, but you don’t want that expensive booze turning into a watery mess. Avoid small cubes and pick up rubber molds or invest in an ice sphere .

Sweetener: While s imple syrup works well, other options are to sub in honey, maple syrup or agave nectar. But, make sure to dilute these with equal parts water.

Bitters: There are dozens of new bitters on the market. The best, however, is still the most common: Angostura. Two healthy dashes will do the trick. Chocolate or walnut bitters work well in this drink if you can find them. I also like Dale DeGroff’s pimento bitters .

Technique: The most balanced Old Fashioned is made by stirring the drink with ice for about 20 to 30 seconds and then straining that mix over fresh ice.

Garnish: Orange twist, lemon twist or both.

At the time, around the mid 1800s, there was a "Whiskey Cocktail," a "Gin Cocktail," a "Brandy Cocktail" and so on. If you wanted it "fancy," the bewhiskered barkeep would have broken a lemon twist over the top. Fancy, indeed. The sweetener would have been rasped off a large block of what was known as "loaf" sugar and the ice would have been chiseled from a large block, like is de rigueur today.

In time, the cocktail cognoscenti, longing for a Whiskey Cocktail as it was intended, began to ask for that drink, but made the "old fashioned way." I, too, was once guilty of committing crimes against the old fashioned, like those mentioned above. When I plied my trade in London about a decade ago, the process of making an old fashioned was a fastidious event that we were taught should take about six to seven minutes. Now, if you think that sounds like a preposterous amount of time to prepare a cocktail, then you would be correct. I never could comprehend that reasoning.

At Julep in Houston, owner Alba Huerta has a particular fondness for whiskey cocktails and her old fashioned is a crowd favorite that doesn’t take seven minutes. Huerta explains, "This is a good gateway cocktail when guests may not be familiar with other classics or hesitant to try our signature drinks. It's the premise of what began the cocktail revival and the one drink that everyone was serving before we started to create our own."

Old fashioned photos clockwise from top left: Hard Water (SF) by Ed Anderson, Southern Efficiency (D.C.) by Scott Suchman, and The Raines Law Room (NY) by Nick Solares.

Back at Old Town, Fitz’s old fashioned quickly melts into oblivion, the muddled cherries now a quagmire at the bottom of the glass. I gather my belongings and head over to a place nearby that couldn’t be more different than the Old Town. Dear Irving is a hip new cocktail joint on Irving Place, an ostentatious and opulent cocoon of hanging chandeliers, crystal glassware and $15 old fashioneds.

Under the watchful eye of cocktail maven Meaghan Dorman, veteran bartender Tom Richter makes me a stellar version that would befit such a price tag. A small sugar cube doused in Angostura bitters is muddled with a splash of soda. He does ask for my preference in whiskey — a nice touch — and pours in over proof Rittenhouse rye once I tell him I don’t really care. He knows what he’s doing.

A hand carved chunk of brilliant, clear ice is carefully lowered in and stirred briefly. This expeditious technique produces an old fashioned that is rather alcoholic during the first few sips and is consequently a little unbalanced. The old fashioned, which is essentially a drink of pure alcohol, needs a little dilution to achieve that silky, viscous texture that made us fall in love with this drink in the first place.

Pegu Club's (NY) old fashioned by Nick Solares.

The Perfect Old Fashioned

2 ounces overproof rye or bourbon

1/2 ounce simple syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine whiskey, simple syrup and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Stir then strain into old fashioned glass with ice. Garnish with orange twist.

Not so, says Erik Adkins, the man to trust at Hard Water in San Francisco, a bar that stocks a dizzying array of American whiskies.

"We make a lot of old fashioneds, but we go with the original name, 'whiskey cocktail,' which confuses some people, but we like it. I know that lemon peel is traditional but I have always liked it better with orange peel. I also know that some esteemed bartenders prefer theirs stirred to dilution and then served on hand cut ice but I am not convinced. I like mine a little boozier. I think that it’s fitting that a whiskey bar makes an Old Fashioned on the stronger side as it’s a drink to linger over and enjoy as it evolves from strong to weak."

Back in New York, at Dorman’s other bar, The Raines Law Room, she pays particular respect to the old fashioned by including a section where guests can choose their own spirit, bitters and sweetener. And it’s not exclusive to whiskey. A mezcal version with Del Maguey’s prized Chichicapa? Sure, why not? Or maybe the divine Siete Leguas reposado tequila with agave nectar is more your speed. "Choose your own adventure," the menu encourages. It’s a fun ride and worth a visit.

Derek Brown, the charismatic owner of several bars in the capital, makes plenty of old fashioneds at Southern Efficiency, a place dedicated to the food and drink of the South (especially whiskey). "Personally, I love a rich old fashioned that keeps the sweetness in check, when it lands on your tongue with the weight of sweet cream but ends with a kick. I also love mixing various old fashioned-style drinks and, especially, substituting the sweetener: honey, chai maple syrup, PX sherry. They're all fun to play with. Throw in some different bitters too and you can make about 100 variations in an afternoon."

Old-Fashioned

Robert Simonson

• Yield 1 drink
• Time 2 minutes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The old-fashioned is one of the oldest mixed drinks in the cocktail canon. (Original name: whiskey cocktail, which became old-fashioned whiskey cocktail, and then just old-fashioned.) It is a stirred drink, usually built in the glass in which it is served. Both rye and bourbon are suitable base spirits. For the sweetener, purists muddle up a sugar cube with water and a couple dashes of bitters, but simple syrup works as well. Twists can be orange, lemon or both (known as “rabbit ears”). A fruited version of the drink came into vogue after Prohibition and involves the muddling of a cherry and orange slice along with the sugar. That version remains widespread, but we advocate the more elemental rendition that took hold in the late 1800s, one that allows the flavors of the whiskey to shine.

Ingredients

• 1 sugar cube (or 1 bar spoon simple syrup)
• 2 dashes Angostura bitter
• 2 ounces rye or bourbon
• Orange twist

Preparation

1. Muddle the sugar cube and bitters with one bar spoon of water at the bottom of a chilled rocks glass. (If using simple syrup, combine bitters and one bar spoon of syrup.) Add rye or bourbon. Stir.
2. Add one large ice cube, or three or four smaller cubes. Stir until chilled and properly diluted, about 30 seconds. Slip orange twist on the side of the cube.

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Old Fashioned 101

The classic American cocktail

By Martin Doudoroff

C irca 1800, the Cocktail was a “hair of the dog” morning drink that tamed spirits with water, sugar and bitters (patent medicine). The late 19th Century expanded the use of the word “cocktail” to encompass just about any mixed drink. Since then, the Old Fashioned—literally, the old-fashioned way of making a cocktail—has been our contemporary expression of the original drink.

During the 20th Century, various bad ideas encrusted the Old Fashioned. Here we will strip off those barnacles to expose the amazingly simple and sublime drink beneath.

An “old fashioned glass” or “double old fashioned glass” is ideal. These glasses, also known as rocks glasses and double rocks glasses, are tumblers with straight sides and a thick bottom. Clear, uncolored and relatively undecorated glass is ideal because the Old Fashioned is a comely drink on its own. In a pinch, any glass will do.

Tip: the size of glass you want will depend on whether you plan to add ice or not.

Add sugar to taste.

Sugar (and the scant water it is dissolved in) mellows the spirit of the drink. Not much is required, just a little, as the quality of today’s spirits is so much higher than it typically was when the Old Fashioned was born. A little splash of simple syrup generally suffices. Gum syrup, rich simple syrup, demerara syrup, brown sugar syrup, sugar cane syrup (the variety filtered of molasses solids) all are great choices. Agave syrup or other neutral diet-sensitive sweeteners may suffice.

Honey, maple syrup, molasses or other strongly-flavored sweeteners do not belong in an Old Fashioned, which is not to say you cannot or should not create nice variations on the Old Fashioned with them.

There exists a venerable tradition of sweetening the Old Fashioned with crystalized sugar or a sugar cube. You can indeed use crystalized sugar, but it’s more work: you’ll have to wet it with a few drops of water and work it until it dissolves into a syrup before proceeding. Crystalized sugar won’t dissolve on its own once you add the spirits. If you add spirits before dissolving the sugar, you’ll wind up with an unsweetened drink and a gritty sludge of sugar in the bottom of the glass.

Add one or more dashes of aromatic bitters, to taste.

Aromatic bitters don’t make a drink taste bitter. Rather, they bind the flavors of the drink and contribute botanicals (the medicine) that make the Old Fashioned a genuine aperitif cocktail. (An aperitif stimulates the appetite.)

When getting started with the Old Fashioned, you should always use Angostura bitters. Angostura bitters is the ubiquitous benchmark aromatic bitters and always the default choice when no brand is specified. Angostura bitters always works.

As of this writing, there are at least two dozen novel aromatic bitters on the market: you are encouraged to experiment freely with them only after you’ve mastered the drink with Angostura bitters. Some of these new bitters will work well and others will disappoint, and success may depend on the spirits you pair with them. You can also combine bitters. For example, when putting bourbon in my Old Fashioned, I sometimes like to use one dash of Angostura bitters and one dash of orange bitters.

A “dash” is a somewhat arbitrary quantity. A dash has the volume of several drops. A dash is what you get from a single shake of a bottle that has an integrated “dasher top”, such as Angostura bitters. Unfortunately, the volume these bottles emit in a single squirt varies significantly depending on the design of the dasher top, the volume of liquid in the bottle, and how vigorously you shake it. Don’t worry too much about it. Your experience will guide you.

Just make sure a little bitters gets in the drink, or it’s not an Old Fashioned.

Add a measure (2 oz, give or take) of your choice of spirit.

Initially, your choice of spirit should be from any of the scores of fine bourbons and straight rye whiskeys on the market.

Why bourbon & rye? When made with today’s bourbons and straight ryes, the Old Fashioned is bullet-proof. These are simply the easiest spirits to master the Old Fashioned with. In fact, the Old Fashioned is a brilliant way to experiment with and compare these whiskies.

There’s much more to talk about here, such as Canadian whisky, brandy, genever, and variations with tequila and rum, but let us not get distracted just yet. Go find some bourbon or straight rye.

Look at what you’ve got in your glass.

Give it a stir. Smell it. Taste it.

That’s an Old Fashioned.

You could stop now, and sometimes you should.

If the drink is too strong, you absolutely could add a little water (to taste), but you probably won’t need to unless you’re using a very high proof spirit.

Step 5 - optional

Ice is completely optional. Many prefer it. But please do not assume it’s a requirement. Sometimes the drink is better without.

Why wouldn’t you want to add ice? Dilution. If you put ice in your Old Fashioned, you have a finite amount of time to slurp it down before it becomes a watery mess. The time you have depends on the quality of your ice and the proof of your spirit. Omitting ice means you can nurse the drink all day, should you wish to. The Old Fashioned without ice is a more contemplative Old Fashioned.

If you do add ice, the ideal is a single large ice cube that just fits within and mostly fills the glass. A chunk of hand-carved ice is the epitome of elegance. And yet, any clean-tasting ice cubes will do (the colder the better).

Tip: there’s no reason you cannot stir your ingredients with ice and strain the mixture into an empty glass as a way to achieve a consistent dilution. This technique is precisely how the Old Fashioned’s cousin, the Sazerac, is commonly made.

Step 6 - optional

Add a twist of citrus peel.

A twist is a strip of peel from a fresh, firm, good-looking lemon or orange. (click here for a how-to) There are many ways to cut a twist. You can use a vegetable peeler, a knife, or a channel knife. You can cut a long spiral or a fat wide piece or a small disc. Regardless, the point is for the essential oils just below the outer surface to be expressed into the glass over the surface of the drink. You accomplish this by aiming the twist into the glass and bending it with your fingers so as to spray out the oils. Afterwards, you can either place the spent twist in the glass as a decoration or discard it.

Tip: I often favor an orange twist for my bourbon Old Fashioneds and a lemon twist for my rye. Or one of each.

Rinse. Repeat.

Practice makes perfect and yields endless insights.

Just so we’re perfectly clear:

There is no orange slice in an Old Fashioned.

There is no cherry in an Old Fashioned.

You do not mash up fruit of any kind in an Old Fashioned. To do so implies a perverted nastiness of mind†.

There is no seltzer, soda water, ginger ale, or lemon soda in an Old Fashioned.

There is no vermouth of any kind in an Old Fashioned.

There is no beer in an Old Fashioned.

There is no lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice or sour mix in an Old Fashioned.

There are no frothing agents in an Old Fashioned.

You do not shake an Old Fashioned‡.

You can learn more about the history and context of the Old Fashioned—as well as cocktails in general—from several estimable sources, but you could do no better than begin with David Wondrich’s Imbibe!.

Moreover, the Old Fashioned now has its own book! Written by Robert Simonson, this brief, lavish volume traces the historical arc and vagaries of the drink and enlivens it with loads of “drink porn” (photography) and many delightful and eccentric quotations pulled from books and articles over the years, concluding with recipes for forty-some intriguing departures on the Old Fashioned collected from today’s best bartenders. If you’re passionate about the Old Fashioned, you’ll find a kindred spirit in Simonson and plenty of food for thought and experimentation in his book.

†“I once entered the bar of the Drake Hotel in Chicago where an ancient presided over a veritable American wing of glasses and bottles, and tried to explain that I wanted an Old Fashioned without fruit except the lemon. The Nestor of the decanters waxed as livid as a Marxist on May Day, smashed a champagne glass he was polishing and danced up and down on the duck-boards in an ecstasy of rage. вЂ˜Young impudent sir,’ he screamed, вЂ˜my hair is hoary with eld,’ he added as an afterthought. вЂ˜Man and boy I’ve built Old Fashioned cocktails these sixty years. Yes sir, since the first Armour was pushing a wheelbarrow in a slaughterhouse, and I have never yet had the perverted nastiness of mind to put fruit in an Old Fashioned. Get out, scram, go over to the Palmer House and drink.’”—Lucius Beebe in the introduction of Crosby Gaige’s Cocktail Guide and Ladies’ Companion. 1945. Thank you, Gaz Regan.

‡If you put these same ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake or stir them with ice, and then strain the drink into a cocktail glass, you’ve produced the Whiskey Cocktail. This is also a good drink.

Comments, errata and questions are welcomed by email.

Acknowledgements: this brief text is but a summary from my years of experience and the wisdom of those who led the way: Dale DeGroff, Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh, Gaz Regan, Robert Hess, and David Wondrich.

Still reading? Well, there’s more if you must.

The text and original images of Old Fashioned 101 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

TASTE cocktails

Old Fashioned Recipe – How to make an old fashioned

Known as one of the simplest cocktails to make, yet one of the hardest to perfect, we’ve made, tested and enjoyed countless old fashioned recipes and we’ve summed up our favourite ones here.

When you talk about cocktails specifically whiskey based ones it’s hard not to automatically think of the old fashioned, it’s one of the go-to cocktails for people who love whiskey but also just for generally cocktail lovers. Not only does it taste fantastic but it’s relatively easy to make requiring only a few ingredients meaning it’s accessible to many. Plus it has a long history and has been loved by people for more than 200 years.

Our Old Fasioned Cocktail Kit contains everything you need to make a classic Old Fashioned, variations & a Sazerac! Delivered to your door with a recipe card with instructions on how to make each cocktail. Orders yours here

The recipes for an old fashioned cocktail normally consist of these ingredients:

Theres two options here, either use a sugar syrup or simply sugar itself, we have both at hand but whichever you have is one you should go for. Which sugar to use for an old fashioned is often debated but you can use caster, demerara or any other sugar you have access to (the less processed the better, and we tend to go for brown or demerara).

We recommend you use Angostura bitters, it’s a versatile bitters that can be used in many different drinks and works fantastic with this one, but if you have others, play around with them and see what you like.

This cocktail is an ‘on the rocks’ type drink and so ice is a vital part of it, we recommend the use of large ice rather than smaller as it melts slower and cools the drink down without diluting it too quickly.

No need to put any actuall fruit in except for a slide or two of orange peel, twisted to express some oils into the drink.

How to make an old fashioned

There are numerous variations on how to make an old fashioned cocktail but essentially they mainly contain whiskey/bourbon, sugar, ice/water and bitters. We’ve found our favourites and here they are:

The Classic Recipe

Ingredients:

• 50 ml of Whiskey or Bourbon
• 1 cube or teaspoon of sugar (demerara works best)
• 2-3 dashes of angostura bitters
• 1 twist of orange peel to garnish

1. Place the sugar and bitters into a rocks glass (chilled) and muddle together until mixed, feel free to add a dash of water to help it mix.

2. Once mixed add some of the whisky and a few ice cubes and stir for 15-20 seconds to bring the alcohol down to a good temperate and to start the ice melting. Keep adding a little more whisky, then a little more ice, and continue to stir. You might want to sip a little as you go and stop stirring when you feel it’s diluted to your tastes.

3. Garnish with a twist of orange peel (twist the peel over the glass so the peel expresses its oils)

4. Enjoy your old fashioned!

Don’t have all the ingridents or want to try variations as well? Why not head over and buy our old fashion cocktail kit with everything you need to make it delivered to your door!

If you want to mix it up you can try using different whiskeys or bourbons and each will make the drink taste slightly different. Keep all the other proportions the same though. So if you prefer a slightly stronger whiskey taste opt for a slightly strong (higher proof) rye whiskey or if you prefer the sweeter taste then opt for a bourbon, which often has sweet elements to it.

Bourbon Old Fashioned Recipe

The classic recipe can easily be made using bourbon however the below recipe is a slight mix on it and makes for an equally lovely cocktail to drink. This recipe was made popular by Don Draper on the TV show “Mad Men”, so we sometimes refer to it as the “Don Draper Old Fashioned” or the “American-style Old Fashioned” instead.

• 50 ml of Bourbon
• 1 cube or teaspoon of sugar (demerara works best)
• 3-4 dashes of angostura bitters
• 1 wheel of Orange & 1 Maraschino cherry
• 1 dash of club soda

1. In a chilled glass, muddle together the sugar, bitters, wheel of orange, cherry and a dash of soda for 20-30 seconds

2. Take out the orange wheel and fill the glass with large ice cubes and your favourite bourbon

3. Garnish with a new orange wheel or peel and a Maraschino cherry. Optionally add a spritz of soda water if you want more dilution.

4. Enjoy your old fashioned cocktail!

Recipe Video

Check out this great video from our friends at Shoreditch Shaken, and how they make the classic Old Fashioned:

The history of the old fashioned

One of the oldest cocktails around you’ll find the first printed mention of it in 1806 however as with many drinks the official creator is quite a mystery. According to some the old fashioned was created by James. E. Pepper who was a bartender at a social club in Louisville, Kentucky. Throughout the 1800’s and into the 1900’s there were many mentions of the old fashioned recipes in books including in the 1895 ‘Modern American Drinks’ book written by G. Kappeler in which the classic recipe above is found.

Going into the 1930’s and in 1936 it was mentioned in a New York Times article how during prohibition many bartenders would make a glass with sugars, bitters and ice and pass to patrons who would then add their own illegal spirits into the glass and enjoy.

Later on many bartenders and bars tried variations on the drink, adding additional spirits, many customers weren’t too impressed and simply wanted it the ‘Old Fashioned’ way.

Make your own Old Fashioneds at home

If you want to make a great Old Fashioned at home, without having to buy full-sized bottles of all the ingredients, check out our Old Fashioned cocktail kit. It makes up to 6 drinks, and also teaches you how to make a Sazerac, another absolute classic!