Old Fashioned
May 6th, 2010 § 6 Comments
One of the most classic and downright manliest drinks out there is the Old Fashioned. This drink is like a Whiskey Sour with a beard. Not only is it kick-your-ass strong, but you get to muddle most of the ingredients together, which is violent. A muddler is one of those fancy bar tools that most of us will never bother buying, but look really cool if you do. It’s essentially a pestle (usually made out of wood) and it’s used to mash garnishes and ingredients together in the bottom of your glass. If you’re not going for showmanship though, I’ve found that the back of a bar spoon or ice cream scoop works just as well.
2 1/2 oz whiskey
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange wheel
1 lemon wedge
1 maraschino cherry
1 sugar cube
Toss the orange wheel, lemon wedge, maraschino cherry, and sugar cube into a double rocks glass and then splash your Angostura bitters on top. Muddle all these together until the sugar dissolves into your pulpy, juicy mass of fruit. Fill your glass with ice, top off with the whiskey, and stir.
Some people like to add a splash of soda water to help dissolve the sugar, but bear in mind that this will demote your drink’s beard down to a goatee.
Side note: In the process of conducting a rigorous and highly scientific study, I have discovered that a Gin Old Fashioned is also quite delicious.
If you’re going for bearded showmanship, I recommend using the ball-joint end of a lion’s femur as your muddler.
[...] spiciness, I’ve found, works tremendously well to balance an Old Fashioned. A sweeter bourbon can have a tendency to lose its flavor in the fruity mash that is the basis of [...]
[...] or others) are still an important part of many classic drinks. See: the Negroni, the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, or the Bernardo. For most drinks that require bitters Angostura is the standby, with Fee Brothers [...]
[...] So when did medicine make its way into cocktails? Conventional wisdom tells us that it happened in the early 1900s. In the early days of the cocktail, the primary function of a mixed drink was to serve as “hair of the dog” the morning after heavy drinking. Mixing fruit juices, sugar, and other ingredients with your booze helped to make it more palatable first thing in the morning and while you’re at it, why not add some medicinal bitters to help your headache and nausea? A century later, the medicinal properties of bitters have long been dismissed, but we can still appreciate a well-crafted Old Fashioned. [...]
[...] this process we’ve made Whiskey Sours, Old Fashioneds (pictured above), and Manhattans (pictured below). We also had a Shine-based cocktail at Salt of [...]
[...] familiar with maraschino cherries than with the liqueur, and why not? They go in a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned, you can put them on a sundae, or even stick ‘em all over a ham if you go for the Betty [...]