Old Fashioned (recipe No. 2)
Stir ∙ Old-fashioned glass ∙ 3 min ∙ 28% ABV ∙
The Old Fashioned is the original whiskey cocktail — bourbon or rye stirred with sugar and bitters over ice and finished with an orange twist. It's spirit-forward and only lightly sweet, with warm bitters and a citrus-oil aroma from the twist — a slow, contemplative sipper.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Add Cane syrup 15 ml and Angostura aromatic bitters 3 dashes to the old-fashioned glass
- Add Bourbon 60 ml and ice
- Stir gently to combine and chill
- Express an orange twist over the cocktail and use as garnish
Tips
- Express the orange peel over the glass — the citrus oils are half the aroma.
- One large ice cube slows dilution and keeps it spirit-forward.
- Build sugar/syrup and bitters first, then add spirit and ice — don't drown it.
History
The Old Fashioned is, quite literally, the original cocktail. When the word "cocktail" was first defined in print in 1806 — "spirits, sugar, water and bitters" — it was describing exactly this drink. The name came later: by the late 1800s, as more elaborate cocktails appeared, drinkers began asking for one made "the old-fashioned way." A popular account credits the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1880s, where a bartender is said to have made it in honour of bourbon distiller Colonel James E. Pepper, who reputedly carried it to New York's Waldorf-Astoria. That claim is disputed — the drink predates the club by decades, so the Pendennis likely refined a version rather than inventing the category.
FAQ
What is in an Old Fashioned?
Whiskey (bourbon or rye), a little sugar or simple syrup, and aromatic bitters, stirred over ice and finished with an orange twist.
Bourbon or rye?
Both are classic — bourbon is sweeter and rounder, rye is drier and spicier. Pick to taste.
Should you muddle fruit in it?
Traditionally no. The classic build uses just sugar, bitters, and an orange peel; muddled orange and cherry is a later, sweeter style.
