Knockin’ Them Back the Old-Fashioned Way

I’ve been drinking quite a few Old-Fashioneds the last couple of months, especially when the weather’s cold and wet, I’m home very late and want something I can fix quite easily.

I mentioned in an earlier post how the Old-Fashioned is really the oldest surviving ‘cocktail’ in the true sense of the word, in that it consists of spirits, water, bitters and sugar. That’s what ‘cocktail’ used to mean, and after it started getting ‘fancied up’ and ‘improved’ with liqueurs and the like, some folks started asking for their cocktails the ‘old-fashioned’ way, and the drink has survived like that until today.

Well, mostly like that. An interesting thing about this drink is that I gather it is making something of a resurgence thanks to the fact that the Old-Fashioned is the favorite drink of Don Draper on Mad Men. Although I’ve only seen a few episodes of Man Men, and that was quite some time ago, I can see how the show might have sparked an interest in classic cocktails for some people (hell, I got interested in them from seeing Sam drinking Mojitos on Burn Notice). Be like the savvy, suave, masculine men of Mad Men and get yourself an Old-Fashioned. And make it the way Don Draper takes it.

No, please, don’t have it the way Don Draper takes it.

There’s two problems – the fruit and the whiskey.

The 50s and 60s weren’t really a highpoint of cocktail culture. James Bond, lounge culture, and, well, Mad Men aside, cocktails and the love of hard spirits (particularly dark, aged spirits) was actually in decline. Ted Haigh argues that Prohibition had seriously hurt supplies of aged whiskey, the Depression and war rationing didn’t let things get back to speed, and liquor companies turned to a new spirit to fill the gap – Vodka. To sell the stuff, they had to dress it up with all sorts of flavours (it doesn’t taste like much without) and people got used to sweet flavoured long drinks in weaker mixes and turned their backs on strong cocktails and spirits with stronger tastes.

The Old-Fashioned survived, but it fell victim to the trend. Blended whiskies were used instead of high-proof Bourbon and rye whiskey. These have smaller amounts of aged whiskey and large amounts of neutral grain alcohol, making them faster and cheaper to produce. So Don Draper prefers Canadian Club in his Old-Fashioneds.

And then there’s the fruit. The traditional thing was to use a twist or segment of orange or lemon peel. It could be muddled with the sugar and bitters, just added to the drink, or just twisted over. That was it. Only the peel, without pith, for accent. There might have been a cherry for decoration. By the time Don Draper gets his lips on the drink there’s whole wedges of orange, cherries (or those terrible sweet imitations) and sometimes even pineapple being mashed into a fruity paste with the drink. Oh, and the whole thing is being topped up with soda to further weaken it. It’s closer to a tropical tiki drink than a classic cocktail. Apparently, when the Trumans moved into the White House and the First Lady was served one by their house bartender, she said “We drink Old-Fashioneds, not fruit punch.”

Enough history, and on to the drink. I’ve been trying a few variations, but (once I got the proportions just right) my first try is still my favourite. It’s the basic recipe, with Rye Whisky rather than Bourbon, a drink that was more popular in the 19th century, but is making something of a resurgence these days. Not that there is anything wrong with Bourbon. It’s perfectly normal in an Old-Fashioned, but (with the caveat that I’ve yet to try it myself) all the gurus seem to say that Canadian whiskey (confusingly also referred to as ‘rye’ sometimes) is definitely out. Sorry, Don.

The Rye Old Fashioned

2 oz rye (or bourbon) whiskey

1/2 sugar cube

1/2 tsp water

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

1 large piece of citrus rind (lemon for rye, orange for bourbon)

Place the sugar cube in an Old Fashioned glass, and saturate with bitters and water. Muddle to dissolve the sugar. Muddle in a large piece of citrus rind (1 inch by 2 with pith removed is good). Add whiskey and one to three ice cubes (depending on size). Stir gently. Remove old rind and garnish with a fresh piece if you want to get really fancy.

I used my Rittenhouse Bonded (50%) Rye Whiskey, and it works great. I started with 1 largish sugar cube, but found that a half works much better. I usually go for three dashes of the bitters too, but that might not be to everybody’s taste.

The Bourbon Old-Fashioned

Make this just the same as the Rye one but with the different whiskey and orange instead of lemon.

I got some Maker’s Mark for my first Bourbon, after reading very good reports and being enchanted by the bottle. It might not have been the best choice for me, though. I loved the Rye Whiskey. US Rye is made from a mash that contains at least 50% rye, but also other grains. Bourbon is made from a mash containing at least 50% corn, and usually wheat and rye as well. Maker’s Mark is unusual in that it contains NO Rye. This makes it a much smoother product, and I can respect it as such. It’s just not the extreme that I like. Maybe in other drinks. I have found a rescue attempt, though. More on that later. First …

Mucking Around With Ice

Ice is so important in a cocktail. With the first drink I really got into, the Mojito, I discovered the joys of crushed ice, and now apply it to gin and tonics and many more. It makes a drink really cold, makes it long, without much mixer, and leaves very little space to over-dilute the drink with too much soda. Martinis and many more cocktails, on the other hand, want no dilution so they need to be stirred or shaken with ice then served in a martini glass without, in small portions, do be drunk rather quickly (stemmed glass, so the had doesn’t warm the drink).

The right ice is important and really changes a drink.

And Old-Fashioned is supposed to have only 2-3 LARGE (and very cold) ice cubes, so that they only melt slowly and don’t dilute the drink, but still keep it nice and cold. In the old days, they’d chip large chunks off their blocks of ice. In some places (Japan, apparently, for one) skilled bartenders carve large balls to neatly fit in the glass. So use large cubes from a large mold.

I was lucky enough to spot a tray for making big spheres of ice in a dollar shop. The picture above shows the results. It makes for a much more ‘correct’ Old-Fashioned, but I’m going to go against everything I’ve just said to say that I’ve reverted to 4 or 5 large cubes. I just like the sound and feel of them clinking together. The emotional appeal of a drink also changes the taste, you know? (Well, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it).

Messing About With Bitters

Angostura Bitters are the choice of bitters in an Old-Fashioned these days, and they’re a mighty fine choice, but they’re definitely a negotiable one.

I’ve been buying a few different kinds of bitters recently and experimented with a few:

Peychaud’s – didn’t do anything for me.

Orange – pretty nice, better in a Manhattan, though.

Rhubarb – nup.

Fees Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters (Batch 4) – Jackpot!!!

This is a fabulous bitters. I love my Rye, but it’s almost gone, and I can’t buy it in Taiwan, so I’ve been drinking Bourbon. Fees Brothers come to the rescue. These bitters add the spice, pepperiness and character to my Old-Fashioned that I’ve been missing. If you’re a fan of the drink, I strongly suggest that you find these bitters and give them a go in your Old-Fashioned. Fees make one batch a year, they’re all a little different, and when they sell out, you need to wait until the next year. So buy one when you see it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if you’re in Taipei, you can get these at Breeze.

The Genever Old-Fashioned

The Old-Fashioned started out as not just a Whiskey drink. Brandy and gin were the other choices. In those days, gin, meant Dutch Gin, aka, Genever. I have a nice bottle of Bokme Oude Genever, so I tried that in an Old Fashioned (same recipe).

I love that Genever. It’s like the Rye version of gin. Spicy, earthy, whiskey-ey and with that juniper bite of gin. Great drink.

The Elder-Fashioned

2 oz Bourbon

1/2 oz St Germain Elderflower Liqueur

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

St Germain is heavenly nectar, from bottle to  smell to sip and beyond. I got a bottle in New Zealand (sadly, none available in Taiwan). If I had an endless supply, and the budget to match I’d be sipping on this stuff straight with tonic all summer, but it also mixes tremendously well. In the Elderfashioned it replaces sugar as the sweetener. I’ve seen recipes with Scotch and even with Gin, but the recipe on St Germain’s own website calls for Bourbon, and here’s their instructions, word for word:

Stir ingredients in an old fashioned glass, add ice and stir again as if you are a revolutionary. Add an orange twist and think progressively as you sip this new twist on a classic. Vive La Résistance!

I tried it with Bourbon and Rye, and in this case the Bourbon makes a much better drink. Don’t think that such a delightful floral addition will turn this drink all soft and flowery, though. Really nice, drink.

There’s a few other common Old-Fashioned variations, with peaches, honey and even, disgustingly, bacon (there seems to be a trend of bacon infusion in cocktails – I’m all for inventiveness, but this is one travesty I can not condone), but I just tried one more:

The Wisconsin Brandy Old-Fashioned

Apparently, in Wisconsin, the Old-Fashioned continued to be widely popular, in its brandy form, and with all the fruit and soda. I decided to give it a go.

It just happens that veteran cocktail blogger Jeffrey Morgenthaler posted about this drink only this month. Here’s his recipe:

1 sugar cube or 1 tsp 2:1 simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange wedge
1 cherry, preferably Amarena or Maraska
2 oz brandy or Cognac

In a chilled old fashioned glass, muddle the sugar, bitters, orange wedge and cherry into a thick paste, careful not to work the orange peel. Add brandy or Cognac, stir, and fill glass with crushed ice and serve.

He eschews the soda or 7-up usually taken in Wisconsin for crushed ice. A very sound idea, but I couldn’t help splashing just the tiniest bit of soda on top. And that ice looked a little colourless, so I dashed a few extra drops of bitters on it. Oh and I didn’t have any real cherries and wasn’t going to throw in one of those horrible fake things.

So it’s not really all that fruity after all. Just a little orange juice, really. I wouldn’t want that with the whiskey, but orange goes very nicely with brandy (Courvoisier Exclusif VSOP in my case) and this was a nice drink.

Conclusions

You can do better than Don Draper! The Old-Fashioned is a great drink in its pure form, with room for personal preferences, mine being Rye. What’s yours?

Edit: It’s a few days later, and I’m sipping a Maker’s Mark Bourbon Old Fashioned with 2 or 3 generous dashes of Bitter Truth Orange Bitters. I think I was too harsh on the Maker’s. I’m really liking it with the orange bitters. This is well-rounded and delicious.