Old Fashioned
| IBA Official Cocktail | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Cocktail |
| Primary alcohol by volume | |
| Served | On the rocks; poured over ice |
| Standard garnish | |
| Standard drinkware |
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| IBA specified ingredients* |
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| Preparation | Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters, add a dash of plain water.
Muddle until dissolved. |
| * Old Fashioned recipe at International Bartenders Association | |
Muddle until dissolved.
Fill the glass with ice cubes and add whiskey.
Garnish with orange twist, and a cocktail cherry.
The Old Fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling (mashing) sugar with bitters, then adding alcohol, such as whiskey or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind. It is traditionally served in a short, round, 8–12 U.S. fl oz (8.3–12.5 imp fl oz; 240–350 mL) tumbler-like glass, which is called an Old Fashioned glass, named after the drink.
The Old Fashioned, developed during the 19th century and given its name in the 1880s, is an IBA Official Cocktail. It is also one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
The first documented definition of the word "cocktail" was in response to a reader's letter asking to define the word in the May 6, 1806, issue of The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York. In the May 13, 1806, issue, the paper's editor wrote that it was a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar; it was also referred to at the time as a bittered sling. J.E. Alexander describes the cocktail similarly in 1833, as he encountered it in New York City, as being rum, gin, or brandy, significant water, bitters, and sugar, though he includes a nutmeg garnish as well.
By the 1860s, it was common for orange curaçao, absinthe, and other liqueurs to be added to the cocktail. The original concoction, albeit in different proportions, came back into vogue, and was referred to as "old-fashioned". The most popular of the in-vogue "old-fashioned" cocktails were made with whiskey, according to a Chicago barman, quoted in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1882, with rye being more popular than Bourbon. The recipe he describes is a similar combination of spirits, bitters, water and sugar of seventy-six years earlier.
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