WHISKEY
FEBRUARY 10, 2019
OLD FASHIONED
The granddad of all cocktails
The Old Fashioned is in many ways THE original cocktail. The "Whiskey Cocktail," a simple compound of spirit, sugar, bitters and water, has been around for almost 200 years and best typifies the first use of the word "cocktail" coined by The Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York, in 1806. The modern recipe is descended from Jerry Thomas who wrote The Bartender’s Guide in the 1860s and was almost lost in the dark ages of prohibition.
The aftermath of prohibition basically amounted to the awkward teenage phase of the Old Fashioned where the classic drink was subjugated to powdered sugar and muddled oranges, cherries and pineapple. Finally, someone had enough. In 1936 a man only known as 'old timer' wrote a letter to The New York Times lamenting the fate of his favorite cocktail and begging for one done "the old fashioned way." The Old Fashioned as we know it was born shortly after and is now one the most popular cocktails in the world.
OLD FASHIONED
Ingredients
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2 oz. Angel's Envy Bourbon
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1 demerara sugar cube or 1 tsp rich demerara syrup
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2 dashes Angostura bitters
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1 dash orange bitters
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splash of water
Instructions
Add the sugar, bitters and water into a rocks glass, and muddle together
Stir until sugar is nearly dissolved and forms a paste.
Fill the glass with large ice cubes, add the bourbon, and gently stir for up to 10 seconds.
Express the oil of an orange peel over the glass, then drop in.
