The Old Fashioned is pretty much the classic of classic cocktails. It’s a simple combination of Bourbon, Sugar, and Bitters. That’s it. That’s the cocktail. It’s so simple but works so well.
But, in reality, the Old Fashioned isn’t just a cocktail made with Bourbon. In actual fact, you can make an Old Fashioned out of anything. We won’t go into all the history of the Old Fashioned, but the name mainly comes from a cocktail made “in the old fashioned way.” This came about in the late 1800’s as cocktail recipes became more complex and started to move away from simple concoctions of base spirit, bitters, and a bit of sugar. Sometimes something else relatively minor was added to suit the spirit, but nothing too substantial. The Old Fashioned, regardless of spirit, was always a simple cocktail.
So, in a lot of ways, you can “Old Fashioned” almost anything like. Name any spirit, mix it with Bitters and Sugar, and you have an Old Fashioned of that spirit. That doesn’t mean that that cocktail will be any good though. Different spirits obviously have different flavours, so the same ratios and exact bitters won’t always work. But all in all, it’s always worth experimenting with different spirits and basic ingredients to see what kind of Old Fashioned you can make out of them.
But what if you don’t want to experiment too much? Or you’re not sure where to start? Well, here’s a few spins on the Old Fashioned to get you started with coming up with your own simple cocktails that are basically just base spirit, sugar, and Bitters.
The Classic Old Fashioned
We’ve already mentioned the classic Old Fashioned, but it’s worth going back over. The classic/basic Old Fashioned is just made of Bourbon, Sugar, and Bitters. You’re welcome to use another Whiskey like Rye or even a Scotch Whiskey and it will work really well with the ingredients and ratios listed in the linked recipe. While different styles of Whiskey are wildly different in flavour, their general qualities are similar enough that you don’t need to change up the Bitters and Sugar too much. However, you may want to play with different kinds of bitters, depending on the Whiskey used. In many ways, Bitters acts like salt in cocktail recipe. It’s not an ingredient on its own, but it enhances the flavours of everything else.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
The Oaxaca Old Fashioned, which is an Old Fashioned with a mixture of Mezcal and Tequila is a nice spice on the classic. This recipe replaces the standard Sugar with Agave Nectar, as it’s more suited to the Tequila/Mezcal. If you’re looking at making a straight Tequila or Mezcal Old Fashioned, this is a good cocktail recipe to start with, since it combines the two. Going with one or the other alone is getting pretty close to drinking Tequila or Mezcal straight, which is fine, but you’re looking for a bit of balance here; you want to take off the rough edges. Start with the Oaxaca Old Fashioned as a base before developing it into a Tequila Old Fashioned or Mezcal Old Fashioned.
Of course, just like the Whiskey Old Fashioned being a great way to explore and understand Whiskey, a Tequila or Mezcal Old Fashioned is a great way to explore and understand different Tequilas and Mezcals. So use the cocktail as a stepping stone.
Caribbean Old Fashioned
The Caribbean Old Fashioned is essentially just a Rum Old Fashioned. It adds a little bit of Cherry Juice to dress it up a little bit, but at its core, it’s still a very basic cocktail with the soul of an Old Fashioned. If you’re using this recipe to explore different Rums, perhaps it’s best you remove the Cherry Juice and just make the recipe with the Sugar and Bitters. Rum is a pretty broad style of spirit, so it’s worth exploring both just neat and as an Old Fashioned. This cocktail recipe is a good start for that.
Of course the recipes lists a Golden Rum, but don’t let that stop you from using any kind of Rum you can get your hands on. Rum is a lot of fun, so embrace it!
The Sazerac and Improve Whiskey Cocktail
The Sazerac has a lot of similarities to the Old Fashioned, except it uses both Cognac and Whiskey. Some versions of the Sazerac are just purely Cognac, some are purely Whiskey. However, it also adds Absinthe to the mix. This cocktail comes from the time when bartenders were moving away from Old Fashioned style cocktails and started adding other ingredients (in this case Absinthe). It pushes the limits of what an Old Fashioned actually is, but is worth exploring if you like Old Fashioneds in general.
Adding to the Sazerac is the Improved Whiskey Cocktail. Again, it’s essentially and Old Fashioned, but here has the addition of Maraschino Liqueur. With the Improved Whiskey Cocktail, you can really see the evolution of cocktails from a simple mixture of spirit with Sugar and Bitters to drinks that started adding different ingredients. This is essentially the missing link in cocktail making between early cocktail recipes and recipes that started to get more elaborate.
So, Will It Old Fashioned?
That’s up to you to find out. We’ve given you some basic riffs on the Old Fashioned formula, plus a couple extensions of it. Now it’s your turn to experiment with this basic mixture to what works and how.
Have fun, but drink responsibly.
