How to make the perfect Old Fashioned

As the speakeasy bar boom continues across the globe, we ask an expert panel of bartenders how one of the most iconic cocktails from the era should be made.

We ask an expert panel of bartenders how they believe the perfect Old Fashioned cocktail should be made

A cocktail called an Old Fashioned is never going to be the new cocktail kid on the block. As it would happen, it is in fact the daddy of all cocktails, with its constituent parts matching exactly with the first recorded definition in The Balance and Columbia Repository in 1806.

One of our highly knowledgeable panelists this month, Jack McGarry from The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog in New York, explains the origin of this fine old tipple.

“The very first cocktail book from Professor Jerry Thomas was published in 1862 and he listed around 10 cocktails. In his revised 1876 version he adds ‘The New & Improved Cocktail’, which replaced orange curaçao with maraschino, and angostura bitters with absinthe. This is where guests starting calling for the Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail, which over time was shortened to the ‘Old-Fashioned’.”

These ingredients are whiskey, bitters, water and sugar. We asked our panel of experts to tell us exactly what makes this venerable cocktail forefather such a classic, and why it is timeless despite its name.

Jack McGarry, head bartender at The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog, New York, Antonio D’Andrea, bar manager at The Library Bar at The Lanesborough, London, and Carlos Santos, bar manager at the Light Bar, London, all offer their perspectives.

We divide their advice into three separate sections: recipe for disaster, what to remember and how to impress.

Click through the following pages to see how to make the perfect Old Fashioned.

Recipe for disaster

JM: Anything which involves dissolving a sugar cube with water or seltzer water, muddling fruit, decoration which would resemble a fruit salad and, lastly, free-pouring the drink. The Old-Fashioned may be perceived as simplistic in its composition but it’s a very fragile drink. All the processes which I hate aren’t fragile and generally the resultant drink from any of these is below par.

AA: Muddling cherries and fresh oranges with it. There are already enough flavours there so why add any more which will only unbalance the drink?

CS: I’ve seen a few bartenders muddling an orange peel along with the sugar – it’s a no no; all you end up doing is creating a cloudy, gooey and unappealing drink.

What to remember

JM: The basic rules to make an Old Fashioned are pretty simple. Pick your juice be it a Bourbon or a rye, measure your sugar syrup (which should be around half water, half caster sugar) carefully to taste, your choice of bitters, add ice to a rocks glass and stir until ice cold. Decorate as you wish although I would recommend an orange slice and maybe a cherry or two. A standardised recipe which works across the board is: 3oz choice Bourbon or Rye, 1oz sugar syrup (.75oz for rye), 3-4 dashes Angostura bitters, 2-3 dashes orange bitters. Combine in a rocks glass with ice, stir until ice cold and decorate as you wish.

AA: Nice variations can be made with rhum agricole, but be careful with the sugar.

CS: Use a good whiskey. It doesn’t matter how sweet your drink is, you can’t mask the harsh flavour of a badly made spirit.

How to impress

JM: At The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog our focus is on the kingdom of mixed drinks between the 17th and 19th centuries. The Dead Rabbit’s Old-Fashioned is influenced by the era of our concept. We go with the 1862 style of OId Fashioned, published in the very first cocktail book from Professor Jerry Thomas, and we negate fancy garnishes and ice, as they did: 2.5oz Rittenhouse Bonded-Proof Rye or Old Forester’s 100 Proof, .75oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Orange Curaçao , 25 oz Benedictine, 3 dashes Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate and 3 dashes Dead Rabbit Orinoco Bitters. You add ice and stir until cold then strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass and finish with orange oils.

AA: Woodford Reserve and Elijah Craig are my favourite Bourbons for a classic Old Fashioned. Also try a Library Old Fashioned with the natural sweet and complexity of a Pedro Ximenez Sherry; it works fantastically, complementing all flavours for a more chocolatey Old Fashioned.

CS: For the best Old Fashioned I like to use Maker’s Mark Bourbon: its higher abv (45%) means its flavours and identity resist the dilution quite well. Soaking the brown sugar cube with two dashes of Angostura and orange bitters is a must, a drop of still water brings out the ‘essence’ of the whiskey, gently stirred so not to break the ice, finished with a generous squeeze of orange twist.