Downtown Luxury Slum

Cast aside any anxiety you may harbor about wading through a mire of text in search of a delightful libation! Unlike some recipes that tease with photos and stories before begrudgingly revealing the key ingredients, this one cuts straight to the chase! Below, you will find the most splendid Old Fashioned cocktail recipe.

But following the Old Fashioned cocktail recipe lie profound personal stories, fascinating facts, and historical nuggets about this timeless beverage. Surely, you you’d like to impress your companions with tales of the Old Fashioned’s origin and intriguing variations, wouldn’t you? So, my friend, do peruse what follows the recipe, and prepare to be not only refreshed, but remarkably well-informed.

Winter is miserable, don’t get me wrong. But the season ushers in the perfect excuse for a delightful cocktail that warms the soul on even the frostiest of nights. My initial foray into this delightful beverage was the not so typical Wisconsin Old Fashioned, a regional twist as comforting as a hand-knitted scarf, wrapped a little too tightly around your neck. The sugar content of that particular version rivals the icy Wisconsin winds. But I’ve grown to love a simpler, classic version of this beverage.

The Old Fashioned cocktail, much like life itself, is both bitter and sweet. The deep amber color conjures memories of a bygone era, when people drank to forget their sorrows and remember their joys. The sharpness of the whiskey is tempered by the gentle sweetness of sugar and the bitter bite of an orange peel. Sipping an Old Fashioned, one can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia for a time that may have never existed, but nonetheless feels as real as the glass in one’s hand.

It is both a staple of the bar and a testament to the ingenuity of humankind. Considered by some to be the pinnacle of cocktail craft, the Old Fashioned is a drink permeated with a sense of mystery and intrigue, a potent reminder of the complexity and fickleness of the human palate. 

Whether enjoyed alone or with friends, the Old Fashioned remains an enigma, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, waiting to be solved, enjoyed, and savored. It’s the perfect boozy hug on a cloudy day.

Old Fashioned Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon water
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 2 ounces bourbon (or rye whiskey, if preferred)
• A chilled rocks glass
• Garnish: orange twist
• Garnish: maraschino cherry

The maraschino cherry is not a traditional garnish for this drink, but it makes it perfection, IMHO. However, make sure you’re using high quality cherries such as Luxardo or Hotel Starlino, otherwise you will just be ruining a perfectly serviceable concoction.

You can use regular granulated sugar, but I like turbinado sugar for a slightly more complex flavour. I’m also a big fan of substituting 1 teaspoon of maple syrup for the sugar and water, for a Maple Old Fashioned.

Directions:

1. Add the sugar, water, and bitters into a mixing glass and stir until the sugar is nearly dissolved.
2. Fill the mixing glass with ice, add the bourbon, and stir gently but with purpose until well-chilled.
3. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube; a few normal sized ones will do in case of emergency.
4. Express the oil of an orange twist over the glass, releasing its sunshiny scent, then drop into the glass to garnish.

Here are a few cocktail making tools that might come in handy for this Old Fashioned recipe.

• You could just use a regular glass or even a cocktail shaker, but this mixing glass would be sure to impress. Here’s a fancy mixing spoon to go with it.
• These rocks glasses look fairly similar to the ones I have and love. If you prefer a different style, make sure you look for ones that hold somewhere between 6 to 12 ounces ounces, otherwise they’ll feel too big. The smaller sizes are hard to find but mine are 9 ounces and they are plenty large.
• I’ve been meaning to pick up some large ice cube molds and this set comes with round and square molds to suit your mood.