Classic cocktails · Bourbon · IBA official
Sugar dissolved in bitters, good whiskey and a slow stir over one big cube. As the ice melts, caramel and oak open into orange peel and spice. It is the cocktail in its original, stripped-back form.
1½ oz
bourbon
1
sugar cube
3 dash
Angostura bitters
1 bar spoon
water a few dashes
Garnish: Orange twist and cocktail cherry · Ice: One large cube
Old Fashioned
Rich and spirit-forward with caramel, vanilla and oak from the whiskey, warm spice from the bitters and a hint of orange. Strong and smooth.
The Old Fashioned goes back to the earliest definition of the word cocktail. In 1806 the New York newspaper The Balance and Columbian Repository described a cocktail as a stimulating drink of spirits, sugar, water and bitters, which is exactly what an Old Fashioned still is.
As the 19th century went on, bartenders began adding liqueurs, absinthe and other flourishes to their cocktails. Drinkers who wanted the plain original started asking for a whiskey cocktail made the old-fashioned way, and by the 1880s the name had stuck. The Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky, is often credited with popularizing it, though that claim is disputed. The drink's popularity surged again in the 2000s and 2010s. The IBA lists the Old Fashioned among its Unforgettables.
Both are classic. Bourbon gives a rounder, sweeter drink; rye a drier, spicier one.
It is almost pure whiskey, so it is one of the strongest classic cocktails.
A short, heavy rocks glass, also called an old-fashioned glass, named after the drink.
The perfect sound
Timeless, smoky and unhurried.
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