How to Make an Old Fashioned Cocktail
Hi, I’m Rachel Maddow here for my friends at Howdini.com and I’m going to tell you
how to make the original cocktail. It’s an Old Fashioned but I don’t want you to get too
excited about the idea of smashed-up fruit in your glass or some sweet confection that
only vaguely reminds you of whiskey. This is the old-fashioned Old Fashioned – the
original cocktail – the cocktail from before cocktails were called cocktails.
So, the old-fashioned Old Fashioned doesn’t have too many ingredients in it; it’s pretty
simple. You start with sugar. You want sort-of a small sized sugar cube and then you’re
going to add Angostura bitters. You can get Angostura bitters anywhere. You’ll know
you’re getting the right one because the label doesn’t fit on the bottle there’s a long story
about that. One, two, three; you want about three dashes of Angostura on top of your
sugar cube; you sort of want to soak the sugar cube. Then, a little bit of club soda or
seltzer water and I do mean a little bit.
You don’t want a cocktail full of water; you just want a tiny bit here. It’s essentially just
to give you mix ability so I’m putting maybe a teaspoon of club soda there. Alright, now
this is the fun part. This is the impress your guests part. What you are doing is you are
mixing together the sugar, the Angostura bitters and a little bit of club soda or soda water
and you’re making a little syrup. So it’s all dissolved together. Thank you, muddler. Well
done.
Alright, now we’re getting to the important part. This is the whiskey. I’m using bonded,
which means 100-proof Rye. You can use either Rye or Bourbon in this, but you want it
to be a whiskey that you really like the flavor of because this is sort of the big deal of the
cocktail; there’s not much more in it. So, we’re putting in 2 ounces of, in this case,
bonded Rye. Don’t be as splashy as I am. Alright, and we’re almost done.
All we’re going to do now is add a little ice and a very important garnish. So, not too
much ice; you don’t want to over-water the drink. If you have really big ice cubes -- big
sturdy ice cubes -- that’s the best with this drink, but any ice will do.
And now, here’s the garnish. A little lemon peel. You want to cut it really thin because
you don’t want any of the white pith on the back because that’s pretty bitter; you want
mostly the lemon oil. Get a nice big swath of it, like this, and then you just express the
lemon oil into the drink, drop it in and that is an old-fashioned Old Fashioned.
I’m Rachel Maddow for Howdini.com.
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