🥃 Old Fashioned

America's Oldest Cocktail

The Old Fashioned is the original definition of a cocktail — a drink defined in The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1806 as 'spirits, sugar, water, and bitters'. For decades it was simply called a 'cocktail'; when bartenders began adding fruit juices, liqueurs, and elaborate additions, drinkers who wanted the original began asking for it 'the old-fashioned way'.

The muddled fruit garnish (orange slices, maraschino cherries muddled into the base) that became popular in the mid-20th century is widely considered an error by serious bartenders. The original formula is whiskey, sugar, bitters, and water. The orange peel is an aromatic garnish, not an ingredient. Keep it simple.