Old-Fashioned
INGREDIENTS
- 1 sugar cube (or 2 tsps sugar)
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 strip lemon zest
- 1 orange slice
- 1 maraschino cherry
- 2½ oz bourbon (or blended whiskey)
- 2 to 3 oz chilled club soda (optional)
- Garnish: Orange slice
- Garnish: Maraschino cherry
INSTRUCTIONS
In the bottom of a chilled old-fashioned glass, saturate the sugar cube with the bitters. Add the lemon zest, orange slice, and cherry. Muddle together the sugar, bitters, and fruit. Fill the glass with ice, add the bourbon, and stir well. Top with club soda, if desired. Garnish with the orange slice and cherry.
VARIATIONS: For an Eccentric Old-Fashioned, place 1 complete lemon peel spiral in the glass. Shake 2 oz blended whiskey, a dash of curaçao, and ½ tsp sugar, and strain into the glass.
For a Canadian Old-Fashioned, substitute blended Canadian whisky for the bourbon, and add ¼ oz Cointreau, and a dash of fresh lemon juice.
For a Scotch Old-Fashioned, substitute blended scotch for the bourbon.
For a Claremont (a fruitier version), muddle 2 maraschino cherries and 2 orange slices, and add ¾ oz orange curaçao.
VIDEO HOW-TO
NOTES
This is yet another classic American cocktail created in bourbon country around the late 1800s. As legend has it, a bartender at the Pendennis Club of Louisville, Kentucky, created this fruity elixir for a local bourbon distiller-Colonel James E. Pepper. Like most classic cocktails that have been around forever, this one has gone through many transmutations since then, including the main spirit. The most traditional liquor-given the locale from which it hails- would be Kentucky bourbon, although blended whiskey is the usual choice and scotch has its fans.
In the spirit of true design, in which form follows function, this drink inspired a sturdy, heavy-bottomed glass of the same name, specifically designed to accommodate the muddling of the ingredients. That is where the essential character of this drink lies, in the muddling of the fruit, sugar, and bitters, the resulting juices producing the quintessential Old-Fashioned. Many prefer to muddle the whiskey along with the fruit to further infuse fruitiness, and those who enjoy a little extra tartness use a wedge of lemon instead of a peel. Variations include wetting the sugar with a bit of water, club soda, or even an added dash of Cointreau-and when it comes to a final splash of club soda, the purists refuse.
The Bourbon Old Fashioned is little more than a slug of whiskey, seasoned and sweetened. Yet for all of its suave simplicity, the drink remains as relevant today as it was when it first captured drinkers’ hearts 200 years ago. If you’re a history buff, you could draw a straight line connecting this drink to the first recorded definition of the cocktail category in general (circa 1806), which called for spirits, sugar, water and bitters. The Old Fashioned hits all those marks, with whiskey, sugar, water and aromatic bitters.
