Old Fashioned

Robert Simmonson, author of Old Fashioned: The World’s First Classic Cocktail says that “the old fashioned whiskey cocktail is the primordial drink dating from the earliest days of the cocktail era.”

A private social club, called The Pendennis Club, lays claim to the very first old-fashioned in America in 1880. James E. Pepper, esteemed bourbon aristocrat, was said to have invented the drink in Louisville, before he brought the recipe to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City.

The GLASS

The Old Fashioned Glass, along with the Martini Glass and Champagne Coupe or Flute are about the only glasses which have taken on the name of their cocktail.

According to Wikipedia, the old fashioned glass, rocks glass, lowball glass (or simply lowball) is a short tumbler used for serving spirits, such as whisky, neat or with ice cubes (“on the rocks”). It is also normally used to serve certain cocktails, such as the old fashioned, from which it receives its name. The true old fashioned glass is decorated in the cut glass style, although most modern examples are pressed glass, made using a mold. The design is essentially English, from the late 18th or 19th-century. Plain glass versions are lowball glasses.

Old fashioned glasses typically have a wide brim and a thick base, so that the non-liquid ingredients of a cocktail can be mashed using a muddler before the main liquid ingredients are added.

The COCKTAIL

This Classic Old Fashioned follows the original formula as laid down in 1806: spirit, a bit of water, a bit of sugar and bitters. Make like Don Draper – smooth as the sixties.

The Recipe