Pre-Prohibition American.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | BOURBON | 40 % |
| 1 cube | SUGAR CUBE | |
| 2 dashes | ANGOSTURA BITTERS | 44 % |
| 1 splash | WATER |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
Variants: Rye Old Fashioned.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 2.31 oz mixed with ice, 0.83 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.35 oz of water |
| Served | 2.31 + 0.35 = 2.66 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.83 ÷ 2.66 = 31.1 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.83 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 19 g · about 135 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM BOURBON · from oak barrel aging
Bourbon's fingerprint, extracted from the charred American oak the law requires for aging. Same molecule as the vanilla bean's signature, so a well-aged bourbon legitimately tastes like vanilla. Chemistry, not metaphor. Cognac, aged rum, tequila reposado all extract vanillin from oak too. Different barrels, same molecule.
ALSO IN Manhattan · Whiskey Sour · Paper Plane · Boulevardier · Sazerac · Espresso Martini · Mai Tai · Amaretto Sour
FROM ORANGE PEEL · citrus peel oil
An orange rind, squeezed, throws a spray that catches the light. That's d-limonene boiling off. It's roughly 95% of orange peel oil by mass, and the molecule that puts the "orange" in orange anything. Used industrially as a green solvent because the chemistry that dissolves citrus oils also dissolves greasy machinery. The expressed-peel garnish on a cocktail is delivering vaporized limonene to the rim of the glass.
ALSO IN Martini · Margarita · Gin & Tonic · Cosmopolitan · Mai Tai · Piña Colada · Hemingway Daiquiri · Americano
Bourbon, sugar, Angostura and an expressed orange peel. There is no mixer and dilution is minimal, so the spirit is barely cut and the ABV stays near 32%. Vanillin from charred oak carries the signature, and d-limonene from the peel opens the nose. Congener load is high, as in most barrel-aged spirits.
The name refers to the construction method that predated the 1870s–80s wave of fancier cocktails dressed with liqueurs: spirit, sugar, bitters, water, stirred over ice. Bartenders making newer drinks called the bare-essentials version an old-fashioned cocktail; the modifier became the name. The term was in print in Chicago by 1880; Louisville's Pendennis Club, founded in 1881, later claimed the invention, though the construction is older.
