Ingredients
- 2-3 dashesAngostura BittersClassic aromatic bittersSubstitute: Peychaud's acceptable
- 2 ozBourbon WhiskeyQuality bourbon whiskeySubstitute: Rye whiskey
- 1 cubeSugar CubeDemerara sugar preferredSubstitute: Simple syrup 1/4 oz
Instructions
- Add sugar cube to mixing glass and saturate with 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
- Add 2 oz bourbon whiskey and muddle sugar cube gently
- Fill mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled
Stir until glass feels cold
- Strain over large ice cube in old fashioned glass
- Express orange peel oils over the drink and garnish with the peel and a cherry
Technique Notes
Saturate the sugar with the bitters before anything else goes in. Undissolved sugar sits at the bottom and the drink gets sweeter as you go down the glass.
Why the Old Fashioned Works
Angostura's clove and gentian backbone gives bourbon's vanilla-and-corn sweetness somewhere to land — the sugar dissolves the spirit's edge while the bitters supply the aromatic spine that keeps the drink from collapsing into syrupy whiskey. Stripped to three components, every choice has nowhere to hide; the bitters are the seasoning that makes the simplicity sing.
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Classic International Standards
Eight standards across three continents: the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan, the Negroni and the Aperol Spritz, Lima's Pisco Sour, the Rob Roy, the Savoy's Corpse Reviver No. 2 and Detroit's Last Word.
Essential Bitters Cocktails
Ten drinks, and the bitter ingredient does a different job from one to the next. In the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan it is a seasoning, a couple of dashes to sharpen the spirit. In the Negroni and the Boulevardier it carries the drink. In the Sazerac it sets the flavour the rest of the drink is built around, with rye and absinthe behind it. In the Trinidad Sour it is the base spirit itself. Four jobs, one kind of ingredient.