The name is for the drink, not the drinker! Evidence of this was from my son who returned from college one Fall for Thanksgiving and suggested that I should try one. I’d never tried an Old Fashioned before and wasn’t even sure what goes into one, but my son assured me that it was good and that I should at least try it. So, here’s my experience plus a little of what I’ve learned about this venerated cocktail.
First impressions
“That’s a lot of alcohol and what the heck is a ‘bitter’?!!” Even though it is a lot of alcohol, it doesn’t taste like straight-up alcohol in the way that makes you feel like you swallowed a fire ant colony. There is a complexity and depth to this cocktail that surprised me when I saw the few ingredients. Some of the best things in life are made with the simplest, quality ingredients and this is one of them.
Bitters are made from adding intense flavors of herbs, roots, bark, fruits, to a tasteless alcohol base. In fact, you can think of it just like adding herbs to your favorite dish; e.g., salsa without cilantro is OK, a little cilantro is better, but too much and you no longer have salsa… it just tastes like cilantro. That’s what bitters are and there should be no surprise that there are different flavors of bitters: orange, lavender, coffee, almond, etc.
Ingredients (but first a very brief history)
While the Old Fashioned has been around since the early 1800s, it has undergone many changes over the years. In fact, that’s how it got its name. The oldest recipes consisted of just whiskey (e.g., bourbon, rye, Tennessee, Scotch, etc.), water, sugar, and bitters. That’s it! Simply called a Whiskey Cocktail at the time, it wasn’t even served with ice and was usually downed more like a shot. Gulp! Later in the 19th century, the younger crowd enjoyed the “new” liqueurs available at the time and the drink began to change with the addition of cherry, absinthe, curacao, etc. All the froufrou was not enjoyed by everyone and they began ordering the Whiskey Cocktail the “Old-Fashioned” way and thus its “modern” name. In the Prohibition era of the 1930s, fruits were macerated in the drink to ostensibly mask the poor quality of alcohol available at the time. Since then, the drink has continued to branch off into several variants, many of which are still enjoyed today.
Owing to this fairly rich history, there are as many ways to make an Old Fashioned as there are bartenders. While I present a Prohibition-esque recipe because that’s the way I first enjoyed it, I’ll encourage you to try other ways of making it, like trying different bitters in different amounts. I’ve even mixed a couple different types of bitters and loved the results. You can also mix different types of whiskeys or substitute garnishes. Don’t like oranges? Try a lemon or lime. It’s your drink! Make it like you like it! The main thing is to sip and enjoy.
In this order add these ingredients:
½ teaspoon of white sugar (try raw or muscovado, too!)
9 drops of bitters (Angostura brand aromatic, or whatever you like)
1 teaspoon of water, macerate to dissolve the sugar
2 ounces of bourbon
Stir, stir, stir
Ice (keep stirring)
Garnish with orange peel (give it a twist to release the oils before dropping it in the cocktail)
When to Drink: After work, with a meal, celebrations, etc.
Associated with These Fictional Characters: Don Draper, Mad Men
John
