Old Fashioned

I go to a lot of craft cocktail bars and am given a menu with house drinks but I always test the bartender by they way an Old Fashioned is made. It’s a relatively simple drink but can be a bad drinking experience if made incorrectly. The Old Fashioned was invented at the Pendennis Club in Louisville Kentucky by bourbon distiller Colonel James E. Pepper and the bartender around 1900. Made of Rye Whiskey, Angostura bitters, sugar cube, soda water and orange peel.

The Old Fashioned

1 1/2 oz Bourbon or Rye Whiskey (Templeton Rye or Buffalo Trace )

2 – 4 Dashes of Angostura bitters

1 Sugar cube or raw sugar cube

1 pinch of white sugar

1 Splash of soda water

Flamed orange peel

1 luxardo cherry

Place the sugar cube at the bottom of a mixing glass. Soak the sugar with 2 – 4 dashes of Angostura bitters and add a splash of soda water and muddle (crush) the ingredients until dissolved with a muddling stick or with the back of a flat end bar spoon. Add ice cubes, whiskey, and stir with a bar spoon for about 30 seconds and strain into a rocks glass with one large ice-cube. Slice an orange peel very thinly ( about 2 inches long), light a match hold it underneath the peel with a back and forth motion for a few seconds, turn it over and do the same for a few seconds while holding it over the glass. Pinch the peel while still holding the lighted match it to release oils, you should see a spark from the release of the oils. Put out the flame and wipe the rim of the glass along with the peel and place it in the glass and enjoy the drink. Also enjoy the clip below from it’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!

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