Old Fashioned
The bartenders favourite, and yardstick with which cocktail connoisseurs test a bartender. Whiskey, sugar and bitters.
The first written record of the Old Fashioned was in Modern American Drinks George J. Kappeler in 1895 called an “Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail”. What we do know about this drink is that it is effectively a bittered sling on the rocks, it was made famous at the Pendennis Club, and was brought to the Waldorf Astoria New York by Col. James E. Pepper, proprietor of the Labrot and Graham distillery, now known as Woodford Reserve Bourbon. There was never any soda water, the cherry and the orange slice are much later additions, and using sugar syrup is considered appropriate as the first recipes called for the production of sugar syrup in the glass itself as the first step in making a proper Old Fashioned. Bitters were originally Angostura, but Orange or Bokers were not unusual from quite early on. By 1930 the recipe had twisted out of recognition with muddled cherries, dashes of absinthe or curacao, and even the addition of a pineapple slice as garnish. The Old Fashioned cocktail is an elegant and restrained taming of fine bourbon, and should only be garnished with lemon peel. We make ours slowly, with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, sugar syrup, and no fruit. It is then served over our hand made, hand cut blocked ice.
