Old Fashioned
ClassicIBA OfficialWhiskey, sugar, bitters. The original.
Warm and unapologetically spirit-forward, with the bourbon fully on display: vanilla, caramel, and toasted oak, lifted by a thread of baking-spice bitters and the bright oil of an expressed orange peel. A whisper of sugar rounds the edges; the large cube stretches it long, slow, and smooth.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 0.25 oz Simple Syrup
- 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
- Orange peel · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Add the simple syrup and Angostura bitters to a chilled rocks glass.
- 2
Add the bourbon and one large ice cube.
- 3
Stir gently for 20-30 seconds, until chilled and lightly diluted.
- 4
Express an orange peel over the surface and drop it in.
The Story
In 1806, a Hudson, New York newspaper answered a reader's question with the first known definition of "cocktail": a mix of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. That formula is the Old Fashioned — a drink that predates the very word for the category it founded. As nineteenth-century bartenders dressed their drinks up with liqueurs, absinthe, and curaçao, purists began asking for theirs made the plain, old-fashioned way: spirit, sugar, bitters, and ice, nothing more. By the 1880s the request had become a name, often traced to the Pendennis Club in Louisville, where it was reputedly made in honour of bourbon baron James E. Pepper. Little has changed since — it remains the clearest test of a good whiskey and a steady hand.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
