By Carla Martinez Danti. 30 July 2021

Do you want to surprise your guests with a traditional and very sophisticated cocktail? If the answer to this question is yes, you are in the right recipe. At OneHOWTO we want to explain how to prepare an Old Fashioned cocktail, an original and unique recipe with a long history. The television series Mad Men has brought it back to the fore and today we want you to learn a little more about this delicious cocktail. For this reason, before starting the recipe for the Old Fashioned cocktail, we want you to discover its history and for this we must go back to 1806, the date on which the definition of the word cocktail was registered, which came to be "a powerful mixture of spirituous drink, bitter, water and sugar". Under this simple formula that hid this distillate, the Old Fashioned was born. In 1880, the definitive Old Fashioned recipe was finally established, the one we know today and allows us to enjoy this traditional and delicious cocktail. It happened at the Pendennis Club, an exclusive gentlemen's club located in Louisville, Kentucky. The story goes that the barman of said club decided to use whiskey as the base of the cocktail in honor of Colonel James E. Pepper, a famous Bourbon distiller. Colonel Pepper himself was the one who brought the recipe for the Old Fashioned cocktail to New York, where he achieved success.

Today, thanks to series like Mad Men, the popularity of this combination is on the rise again. For all these reasons, we want to explain how to make an Old Fashioned cocktail following the original recipe. Do you dare to try it?

Preparing this cocktail is really simple, but before we start, we want to give you a basic tip that is very important when making this drink. The Old Fashioned should be served in a distinctive glass: the whiskey glass. It is a short but wide glass, which helps to fit the ice well and in turn allows you to enjoy and appreciate the aroma of the cocktail much better. Since it is a direct cocktail, its preparation is done directly in the glass, without the need to use a cocktail shaker or similar, although if you make any variant you may need to use one.

Now that you have the Old Fashioned glass, it's time to prepare the cocktail. First, introduce, with the help of a teaspoon, the sugar cube. Leave it at the bottom of the glass and add a few drops of Angostura bitters directly on top of the lump.

Now, add the 10 ml of cold water and stir the three ingredients until the sugar cube has completely dissolved with the water.

Next, it's time to fill the Old Fashioned glass with ice cubes. Once you have entered them, you can add the 45 ml of Bourbon whiskey. For the combination to be perfect, after adding the whisky, you must carefully stir the mixture using a special cocktail spoon.

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To give it an original touch you can add a piece of orange peel, as a decoration, and also a cherry. Ready! You already have this combination ready to enjoy.

Remember that the main characteristic of this cocktail is its intense aroma and delicious flavor, in addition to the low and thick glass, perfect to enjoy a short drink. The sweetness of the sugar combined with the bitterness of the Angostura, the citrus aroma of the orange and the strength and character of the Bourbon make the Old Fashioned a pleasant, balanced and delicious cocktail.

We recommend you read this other article about what whiskey is drunk with.

The Old Fashioned is the quintessential cocktail and although its traditional recipe has settled in modern cocktails, its classic roots have made it one of the most versioned cocktails in the world. Remember that this cocktail admits several variants, among which the following stand out:

We also encourage you to try other cocktail recipes like these:

If you want to read more articles similar to How to make an Old Fashioned cocktail, we recommend you visit our Food and drink category.