DUKAI
Dukai’s Liquor Library

Old Fashioned

Whiskey, sugar, bitters, time

The oldest idea in the book: a spirit, a little sugar, bitters, and enough water to make them one thing. Everything else came later.

  • Classic
  • Whiskey
  • Short
  • Stirred
  • Bitter
  • Spiced
  • After Dinner
  • Nightcap

Whiskey Library

Rocks · Large clear cube

D

Ingredients

Makes
One drink
  • Bourbon or rye whiskey45 ml
  • Sugar cube, soaked in the bitters1 cube
  • Angostura bitters2 dashes
  • Watera few dashes, to help the sugar go

Garnish

  • Orange peel, cut wide, pith removed · expressed1 twist
  • Cocktail cherry · perched (optional)1 each

Method

  1. 01

    Put the sugar cube in the mixing glass and soak it with the bitters.

  2. 02

    Add a few dashes of water and crush the cube to a paste.

  3. 03

    Add the whiskey and fill the mixing glass with ice.

  4. 04

    Stir until the outside of the glass frosts and the drink has taken on enough water to soften it.

    This is where the drink is made. Under-stirred, it is raw; over-stirred, it is thin.

  5. 05

    To finish

    Strain over one large clear cube in a chilled rocks glass.

  6. 06

    To finish

    Express the orange peel over the surface and drop it in.

House notes

The ice is the recipe. One large clear cube melts slowly enough to dilute without drowning, and a glass of small cubes will give you a different and much thinner drink by the time you reach the bottom. Stir far longer than feels right.

Serve in a chilled rocks glass over one large cube. Express the orange peel over the surface so the oil sits on top, then drop it in.

Perfectly paired

  • Aged hard cheese · Something with crystals in it, and salt.
  • Dark chocolate, 70 per cent or higher

Where it comes from

US · the 1880s · Disputed

The drink is older than its name. What the word "cocktail" originally described, a spirit with sugar, water and bitters, is defined in print in 1806; "old fashioned" arrives later as a way of asking for that original thing rather than the more elaborate drinks that had replaced it.

If you like this one

Please enjoy responsibly.