The Old Fashioned is a cocktail, possibly the first drink to be called a cocktail. It is traditionally served in a short, round, 8-12 ounce tumbler-like glass, called an Old-Fashioned glass, named after the drink.

The Old Fashioned is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

History

The first known definition of the word "cocktail" was in response to a reader's letter asking to define the word in the May 6, 1806 issue of The Balance and Columbia Repository in Hudson, New York. In the May 13, 1806 issue, the paper's editor wrote that it was a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar.

Some claim the first use of the specific name "Old Fashioned" was for a Bourbon whiskey cocktail in the 1880s, at the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen’s club in Louisville, Kentucky. The recipe is said to have been invented by a bartender at that club, and popularized by a club member and bourbon distiller, Colonel James E. Pepper, who brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City. Others point out that the term was already in use before the Pendennis Club was founded.

Recipe

There is great contention on the proper way to make an Old Fashioned. Here is one recipe:

• 2 ounces (60 ml) bourbon
• Splash of simple syrup or 1 cube sugar and just enough water to dissolve the sugar
• 2 dashes bitters
• Old Fashioned glass
• Place sugar (or syrup), bitters, and water in old-fashioned glass
• Crush sugar if needed and coat glass
• Add 2–3 cubes ice and whiskey
• Garnish with twist

An 1895 recipe specifies the following:

1. Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey glass
2. Add two dashes Angostura bitters
3. Add a small piece of ice
4. Add a piece lemon peel
5. Add one jigger (1.5 ounces or 44 mL) whiskey

Mix with small bar spoon and serve, leaving spoon in glass.

Modifications

In some areas, notably Wisconsin, brandy is substituted for whiskey. Many drinkers prefer to use rye whiskey because of its complexity.

Most modern recipes top off an Old Fashioned cocktail with soda water. Purists decry this practice, and insist that soda water is never permitted in a true Old Fashioned cocktail. Many respected sources (e.g. Maker's Mark) list an Old Fashioned as containing soda water, forgoing the bitters altogether.

Many bartenders add fruit, typically an orange slice, and muddle it with the sugar before adding the whiskey. This practice likely began during the Prohibition as a means of covering the bitter taste. Another explanation for the practice is that citrus is often used in place of bitters in areas where citrus fruit grows (such as Florida and California). Hence, the fresh San Diego old fashioned () uses limes, lemons, oranges, and soda water rather than bitters and simple syrup. The drink may have been imported to California during WWII, when many Midwestern and Southern boys moved to San Diego for the Navy.

Purists advocate using just enough plain water (called "branch" water) to fully dissolve the sugar without diluting the whiskey, although many whiskey drinkers advocate diluting it by at least 50% to prevent the taste buds from becoming paralyzed by the high alcohol content.

Bartenders often use a dissolved sugar-water premix called simple syrup, which is faster to use and eliminates the risk of leaving undissolved sugar in the drink, which can spoil a drinker's final sip. Others use only the juice of a maraschino cherry, along with the muddled and mangled cherry left at the bottom of the glass.

One popular garnish is a maraschino cherry fastened to the back of an orange wedge using a toothpick. Others prefer to use orange zest with the maraschino cherry.

See also List of cocktails.

Notes

References

• "Renewing an Old Fashion" by Robert Hess at DrinkBoy.com, discusses the history of this cocktail in detail, specifically focusing on the issue of whether to add soda water to the cocktail or not.
• "Nothing wrong with Old Fashioned values" Article from Issue 46 of Whisky Magazine, March 2005.
• "The brandy old-fashioned: Solving the mystery behind Wisconsin's real state drink" Article by Jerry Minnich from The Daily Page, Madison, Wisconsin newspaper. The article is no longer available at the paper's site, but archive.org has an accessible copy here.

External links