Classic Recipe with a Twist: The Old Fashioned

It’s old fashioned week, where we celebrate a cocktail that (per the preceding source) has roots as far back as 1802.  The classic cocktail uses classic ingredients:  whiskey, sugar and bitters, along with some muddled fruit or at least a cherry, depending on what you have handy.

But after 215 years of the same old recipe, @theoldrefashioned thought it was time for an update.  This Instagram feed invites followers to submit their variations on the classic, and I couldn’t resist joining in the fun.  Expanding on the use of fruit and sugar in the original, and with the fall season on my mind, I started by smoking a rocks glass with orange peel and cinnamon, which I torched over a maple wood plank (I found an assorted set of planks here):

For the recipe, I kept the traditional sugar, bitters, whiskey and fruit ingredients, but I added a bit of amaro and Maraschino liqueur.  I muddled and mixed and added a big cube of ice, and it came out looking like this:

A post shared by Geoffrey Wyatt (@capitalcocktails) on Nov 4, 2017 at 3:15pm PDT

(Ignore the gridlines. Oops.)

I really liked the way this tasted.  The smokiness was subtle but definitely there – there was a hint of cinnamon on the nose the whole way through.  And the amaro and Maraschino combination combined with the fruit in a very pleasant way to make this an exceptionally smooth old fashioned.

Here’s the recipe:

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Geoff's Old Re-Fashioned

A new twist on the classic Old Fashioned recipe in celebration of the "Old Re-Fashioned" thread honoring Old Fashioned Week.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Ancestral

Prep Time 7 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 200kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

• 2 oz. bourbon I used E.H. Taylor
• 1/2 oz. amaro I used Averna
• 1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
• 3 dashes old-fashioned bitters I used Fee Brothers
• cinnamon stick
• orange slice
• lemon peel
• cherry
• sugar cube

Instructions

• Smoke a rocks glass by holding it upside down over an orange peel and cinnamon stick while torching the ingredients over a maple wood board.  Let the orange and cinnamon catch fire before removing the flame and place the rocks glass over them while they continue to smolder.
• Turn the rocks glass right-side up.  Add sugar cube, three dashes old-fashioned bitters, the orange slice, and a bit of lemon peel.  Muddle the ingredients.
  
• Add the bourbon, amaro, and Maraschino, and mix the ingredients.
  
• Add the cherry.
  
• Add a large ice cube.
• Optionally, garnish with the burnt orange peel or cinnamon stick.
  

Try it out and let me know what you think – and please share your own takes on the old fashioned!