Old Fashioned Cocktail

Today has been such a long day. A long shitty day.
Right now I should be in Montreal surrounded by my friends, but instead I'm home (after wasting hours at the airport for nothing).
My airline cancellation rage has subsided for the most part. And as I sip this old fashioned cocktail and feel the warmth in my belly, the only thing left to do now is relax.
I might not be where I'm supposed to be, but this is still officially vacation so we might as well make the most of it.


Legend has it that this drink evolved out of prohibition's speakeasies as simply a way to make the moonshine and home stilled booze more drinkable. It's credited as being one of the first "American cocktails" and later morphed into the manhattan.
Traditionally this is what was served when you ordered a "cocktail" but after the birth of the manhattan it caused frustrations from customers trying to order, resulting in the phrase "give me an old fashioned cocktail" which inspired the name.

My husband (as I've mentioned before) is quite a cocktail nut and his old fashioned's have really evolved over the last year as he learns more and more about cocktails.

Here is his current method:


Prepare the following in a martini shaker or a mixing glass:

1 cube of brown sugar saturated in bitters*
1 ice cube
1/2 ounce of bourbon or rye**
stir for 30 seconds until sugar is almost completely dissolved. 
2 more ice cubes
1 ounce of bourbon or rye
stir for 30 seconds (at this point sugar should be completely dissolved)
1 more ice cube
1/2 ounce bourbon or rye
stir for 30 seconds
add piece of orange twist or rind
stir for 30 seconds
strain over 2 cubes of ice in an old fashioned cocktail glass.

This might all seem tedious but the rate of dilution of the ice cube is a key part in the flavour.



*we use a combination of orange and old fashioned bitters from Fee Brothers but Angostura will do the trick just fine
**we like either Rittenhouse Rye or Bulliet Bourbon depending on our mood. Any other high quality rye or bourbon will suffice.