Appropriately named, this old fashioned cocktail has been around a long time, first documented in the May 6, 1806 edition of The Balance and Columbia Repository in Hudson, New York. In describing the drink known at the time as a bittered sling, the paper’s editor wrote, “a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar”.

The first alleged use of the specific name “Old Fashioned” was for a Bourbon whiskey cocktail in the 1880s, at the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen’s club in Louisville, Kentucky. The recipe is said to have been invented by a bartender at that club, and popularized by a club member and bourbon distiller, Colonel James E. Pepper, who later brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City.

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Old Fashioned Cocktail

The original bourbon whiskey cocktail

Course Cocktails

Cuisine American

Servings 1

Ingredients

• 2 ounce bourbon or rye whiskey
• 1 small sugar cube
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• ¼ ounce seltzer water
• lemon peel
• Ice cubes

Instructions

• Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a rocks glass. Add 3 dashes of Angostura bitters and a splash of seltzer water. Using the back a bar spoon or a bar muddle, smash the sugar cube until well dissolved.
• Add bourbon then ice.
• Slice a large piece of lemon peel. Rub the rim of the glass with the lemon and twist it over the drink before serving.

Notes

Being such an old drink many variation have been created from the original. Some using mashing cherries and oranges, this is described as the old fashioned, Old Fashion.

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