Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned, a simple mixture of whiskey, sugar, aromatic bitters, and ice, is one of the world’s most iconic cocktails. The combination of spirit, sugar, bitters and water formed the blueprint for early cocktail creation.

The Old Fashioned wasn’t always old. According to cocktail writer Robert Simonson, author of The Old-Fashioned: The Story of the World's First Classic Cocktail, with Recipes and Lore, the cocktail we’re familiar with today is essentially a Whiskey Cocktail, an early 19th-century creation composed of the same ingredients.

By the mid 1800s, bartenders started to experiment with the Whiskey Cocktail formula, replacing lump sugar with other ingredients like liqueurs and vermouths, creating variations like the Improved Whiskey Cocktail and the Fancy Whiskey Cocktail. The stripped down, original cocktail that was popularized earlier in the century soon became a nostalgic drink — the “old-fashioned” version. By the end of the century, the Old Fashioned cocktail became a category of its own that could be made with any number of base spirits, including gin, brandy, or whiskey.

The earliest published reference of an Old Fashioned appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1880. The drink was mentioned in the same newspaper two years later when the publication asked a local bartender what men were currently drinking. He responded, “The Old-Fashioned cocktails [are] still in vogue; cocktails made of loaf-sugar and whiskey…rye whiskey [is] called for more than bourbon.”

Recipes for Old Fashioned cocktails started to appear in bar guides in the late 1800s with a garnish of lemon peel later included.

Once Prohibition hit the U.S., the Old Fashioned suffered the same fate as many classic cocktails of the time. Though it didn’t disappear entirely, in the decades following, the original simple formula devolved into an unrecognizable fruity, fizzy mash of ingredients. It wasn’t until the craft cocktail revival of the early 2000s, with the help of bartenders and drinks historians, that the drink resurfaced to its former glory. 

The Old Fashioned, in its classic form, has been one of the most popular cocktails ever since.

Why does the Old Fashioned work?

The simplicity of the Old Fashioned is what makes the drink so popular, but exact specifications are often hotly debated. Though the formula is uncomplicated, the proportion of ingredients, style of whiskey used, level of sweetness and dilution, and type of garnish used, are all factors that many a cocktail enthusiast has strong opinions about. The key is finding the right balance.

Bourbon is the most popular choice of whiskey for an Old Fashioned. The mostly corn-based whiskey will lend typical notes of vanilla, caramel, and toasty sweetness that will help to balance the bitterness in the Angostura and warrant slightly less sugar, if that is the preference. 

Rye whiskey is a classic choice and will make for a drier and spicier drink. 

The base whiskey serves as the main structural element, giving the cocktail most of its flavor and body. Depending on the proof of the whiskey, you may want to add a little dilution, such as a teaspoon of water, to soften a higher-strength spirit and round out the drink.

The drink can be finished with a zest from an orange peel. This will add slight acidity and contrast to any sweetness while helping to release rich citrus notes in the drink.