The Old Fashioned

The Old fashioned is arguably the most well known and favorite whiskey cocktail in America. It is absolutely my go-to drink at any bar or restaurant we visit.

The old fashioned can be made in many different variations. However, the basic cocktail is as follows. 1 cube of sugar, 2 shakes of bitters, 1 piece of lemon/orange peel, muddle, add 1 jigger of Whiskey and 1-2 ice cubes then mix. Garnish with cocktail cherry. Due to the simplicity of this cocktail, the smallest variation will create entirely new flavors.

This cocktail seems to have started in the way many things do, someone took an existing recipe, Old Fashioned Holland Gin Cocktail, didn’t have all the ingredients at hand so they made due with what was on the shelf, Whiskey. The inventor was said to be a bartender at The Pendennis Club in Louisville, KY. This would make sense as Whiskey was the spirit of Kentucky and it was plentiful, some legal, some not. It was then made famous by James E. Pepper at the Waldorf-Astoria In New York City. Pepper was from whiskey greatness as his family had one of the oldest distilleries in the country, “Old Pepper Distilling” founded in 1780. I assume the first New Yorkers to taste this art-piece of a cocktail did so with Old Pepper rye whiskey.

The Old Fashioned quickly rose in popularity then underwent a multitude of changes during prohibition when the art of cocktails went underground. Today the Old fashioned has been popularized in movies and tv shows such as Mad Men. However, for me, it was fighting my brothers over the cherries at the bottom of my grand fathers cocktail.

Now the old fashioned is more of an idea rather than an exact recipe. You can have your glass smoked, the lemon/orange flamed or twisted, any flavor bitters you want. Hell you can even drink it through a straw like a neanderthal, though I don’t recommend it. I personally like a slow sip with good friends and a great view.