Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned is a stirred bourbon cocktail built on three things: whiskey, sugar and bitters. Brown sugar and two kinds of bitters give it a rounder, spicier edge than a plain syrup version, and a slow stir over ice softens the proof without hiding the bourbon. It is the drink to judge a bottle by.
- GlassRocks
- MethodStirred
- Ingredients4
- Prep3 min
- DifficultyEasy
Directions
- Soak the sugar cubes with both bitters in a double rocks glass and muddle until dissolved.
- Add the bourbon and ice.
- Stir to chill and add a little dilution.
ToolsJiggerBar spoonMuddlerRocks glass
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The basic whiskey cocktail of spirit, sugar, water and bitters goes back to the early 1800s. By the 1870s bartenders were dressing it up with liqueurs and absinthe, and drinkers who wanted the plain version began asking for an "old-fashioned" cocktail; the phrase shows up in a Chicago newspaper in 1880. The popular story that Louisville's Pendennis Club invented it is a myth, since the club was founded in 1881, after the name was already in print.
Making a batch? Scale it for a crowd, add dilution water, and see how many bottles to buy.
What you'll need to buy
Based on 750ml bottles (25.4 oz), rounded up.
Bottle math, generally
Batching dilution
When you batch, there's no ice melting in a shaker, so you add the water yourself: 18% for spirit-forward drinks, 25% for shaken ones.
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