3 Old Fashioned Cocktails you'll want to make again and again

Today we'll make three old-fashioned cocktails. It seems like everyone knows what an old-fashioned is, but I don't know. Maybe this is the first video you've ever watched that has anything to do with cocktails. Or maybe you're actually really into cocktails and you forgot what an old-fashioned is. And I'm kind of serious about that. I think a lot of people have forgotten what an old-fashioned is. So I'll show you how to make three different versions today. A pretty standard version. A tiki-inspired version. And then my favorite, spared no expense. What might be the most important thing to know about the old-fashioned is how it gets its name. This is a drink that is named retroactively. Not a drink named during its time, so to speak. The old-fashioned is essentially a backlash to modern, complicated drinks of the mid to late 1800s. And when I say complicated, I'm not talking about fat washing or acid adjusting or infusing. Your own spirits with herbs and spices. I'm talking about drinks that contained a liqueur, a vermouth, or maybe even some juice. I'm talking about the crazy drinks of the mid to late 1800s. Like the Manhattan and the Tom Collins. Now, some people had grown accustomed to the original cocktail and wanted things made as they once were. With just a little bit of sugar, some bitters, and a spirit. None of that vermouth or orange curacao. These people wanted things made the old way. The old-fashioned way. So the name old-fashioned is simply asking for a drink to be made as it was in the early part of the 1800s. And this is important because it's not like other drinks that started as something and then, you know, evolved over time. There's no timelines that show all these changes to the old-fashioned. It's the opposite of the Mai Tai or even a martini. You can make sense of a Mai Tai that contains pineapple juice and grenadine because we know why. There was this evolution or maybe a de-evolution that happens over decades for very specific reasons. Or the martini bar that just names everything in a v-shaped martini glass a martini. Whether you agree or not with the fundamentals here, there's a timeline that can make sense of those things. Not so much with the old-fashioned. And it's why it's different from other drinks, in my opinion at least, and should not contain any liqueurs, any juices, or any vermouth. Now modern old-fashions tend to often shy away from the meaning of what an old-fashioned is and include liqueurs and even amaros. But not every drink served on a large ice cube is or should be called an old-fashioned. But where is that line? I don't know exactly. Now can you or I use a flavored syrup in an old-fashioned, like pineapple or cinnamon, and still call it an old-fashioned? I say yes to that. And that's mainly because I'm going to be doing that in just a moment. But I'm not a true stickler for cocktail rules. I feel like they are meant to be broken. However, this one particular drink is different to me because it's not a drink with a recipe or really a true origin. It's a drink that name tells you how to make it. Not exactly what you need to put in it, but it's essentially telling you what not to put in it. Having said that, if a bar or restaurant or even a video online makes an old-fashioned with a liqueur, I'm not going to get like too upset about that. I won't be calling anyone out. I won't be pounding away at the keyboard because I'm just not a ****. But let's start with the basics. An old-fashioned made with an affordable rye whiskey. I personally do like to stir my old-fashions in a mixing glass because it just feels a little bit fancier, a little bit more special. But you can always make one of these in the glass. I'll leave that up to you. So for our first old-fashioned, I will start with three dashes of a cardamom bitters. You could always use Angostura here. Quarter ounce of a Demerara syrup. And then two ounces of rye whiskey using Rittenhouse rye. While it might not be authentic to you, I will express an orange peel over the top and garnish with it. So there you go. An old-fashioned. Let's try it. Cheers. Tastes like whiskey. Tastes like rye whiskey. Now when you're making like a standard old-fashioned, you could easily swap this out for bourbon or use a standard simple. But there's just more flavor to me in rye whiskies and you get more of that spicy rye note. And then the Demerara sugar. Get more flavor from Demerara syrup. Also get body there. But a standard old-fashioned like this one just goes to show that being complicated is not always better. Sometimes simplicity is best. Now in this recipe, I did use a quarter ounce of a syrup, which is more sugar than a sugar cube, which you often find in these recipes. But if you want to use sugar cube or granulated sugar here, there's a fun, happy coincidence. One sugar cube equals one teaspoon of sugar. Most of you might actually know that. But that also equals one teaspoon of a 2-to-1 rich simple syrup, which is the happy coincidence. So even though a 2-to-1 syrup is one third water, it's the same amount of sugar as a teaspoon of granulated sugar since the sugar syrup is denser than granulated sugar. And when it comes to this drink or any other ones today, just adjust the sugar to what you like. If you find that one teaspoon is not enough, then use a quarter ounce. Use two teaspoons. If you find it's too sweet, use less. Use a bar spoon. There is no rule that says you need to use a specific amount of sugar in any cocktail, but especially in Old Fashioned. It's really all about preference. So adapt it to what you like. There are no rules for how dry or sweet it should be. Next Old Fashioned today is one that I am calling Dawn's Old Fashioned. A simple, tiki take on an Old Fashioned by using some pineapple gum syrup and cinnamon syrup. I'm also going to be using grapefruit bitters. Now it's that combo of cinnamon and grapefruit that gives us Dawn's mix from Dawn the Beachcomber. I'm using three rums in this one as well. Bacardi 8, Hamilton 86, and Smith and Cross. I'm going to start with three dashes of grapefruit bitters. One teaspoon of a pineapple gum syrup. One teaspoon of a cinnamon syrup. Three quarter ounces of Bacardi 8. Three quarter ounces of Hamilton 86. Three quarter ounces of Smith and Cross. Now instead of an orange peel here, I'm going to use grapefruit. And there you go. Actually, oh, I forgot. Make sure that you garnish this since it is tiki after all. Just kidding. Don't freak out. So I did end up using more sugar in this one, which is okay by me. It'll be a little bit sweeter, but we're also using a couple of rums, three rums, and they're all, well, not all of them, but two of them are a little higher proof, and we're using more than just two ounces. But like always, adjust as needed. Cheers. This is remarkably different than our first one because the number one thing you pick up first is the change of spirit with the Jamaican rum and the Smith and Cross. So you get the tropical fruit notes, get little bits of like the pineapple, which is being amplified by the pineapple gum syrup, plus banana notes you get there from rum. Hamilton 86, providing like richness and depth to it. And Bacardi 8, really just there to have a wide variety of rums and get something with some age in here. Now when it comes to old fashions, you often hear people in the worlds that I travel in talk about a rum old fashion. That's just an old fashion. You can make an old fashion with gin, brandy, rum, rye whiskey, bourbon, Irish whiskey. You can use whatever you want. It's just a way to make a drink. So you don't have to use specific spirits. And this one is, in my opinion, exceptionally tasty because you get like a nice brightness and bitterness there from grapefruit, grapefruit bitters, as well as expressing grapefruit peel over the top, which just adds a nice freshness. That's why I often like using any type of orange peel, grapefruit peel in an old fashion to bring the brightness that you're missing by not using any fruits or juices. But all in all, delicious old fashion. But if you're wanting to be traditional, then this is probably not it. If you're looking to branch out, then this is definitely it. Oh, and I think one of the main reason really about this whole no liqueurs in old fashions, even though that's kind of traditional, has been, it's been bothering me because I've been making videos now for over three years and I've not done an old fashion video until today, but I've been thinking about it for like two years. And as I was coming up with different recipes over the last like year or two, I kept wanting to introduce things into a tropical tiki thing, like using a banana liqueur, maybe using coffee liqueur. But each time I stopped myself because I was like, well, you can't do that because that's not an old fashion. So you can't use a liqueur in old fashion. So that's just my take on it. But like I've said, if you want to throw a splash of banana in one, I'm not going to be angry about that. Last old fashion today is simple, but it's also my favorite. And I'm sticking to rum and I'm using Appleton 12, which is one of my favorites and Eldorado High Esther LBI DHE. And this is the combo of rums that makes my personal favorite Mai Tai and my personal favorite old fashion. And you can still find this bottle out here for $120 to $140. And I know that's a lot, but you can sub in another age Demerara rum, preferably something from Eldorado. It'll be a little bit different, but it'll still be good. I'll also be using Angostura bitters and just some plain simple syrup. This way, the sugar will not impart any flavor and we can taste the rum and the heavy amount of Angostura bitters. So to make this old fashion, start with five dashes of Angostura bitters, quarter ounce of a rich two to one simple syrup. One ounce of Appleton 12 and one ounce of Eldorado LBI DHE. And like the first one, I will express an orange peel over the top. And there you go. My favorite old fashion. Cheers. I don't like encouraging anyone to run out and buy anything, especially a 120 to $140 bottle of rum. But that is actually my favorite rum. And it's one of the few and only rums that I will spend money on. I happen to have two backup bottles because it's a limited release thing. But it just has this great butterscotchy, caramel, brown sugar, a hint of smoke to it as well. And like a different funkiness. It's not tropical fruit funk. It's more like dark brown funk. And then matching that with Eldorado 12, which is like my favorite standard rum. So you get lots of oak and then a good amount of orange peel. So the orange peel, not just from the express orange over the top, but from the rum itself, that rum gives off orange peel flavor. So you're enhancing that more with our garnish here. And it doesn't get much more simple than this. It's just using simple syrup and two rums, get something delicious and drastically different from our last two. Even though this is rum, way different than the last one. This leans more traditional in its flavor, closer to rye or bourbon than obviously our last one. But overall, this is, if I can only have one Old Fashioned for the rest of my life, this would be it. Hands down. 100%. Don't need anything else. So that's it for this one. Three versions of the Old Fashioned cocktail. And I get questions all the time about glassware. This is vintage. So I couldn't tell you anything about it. This was like a thrift store find. This one here is from Crate & Barrel. Came in a nice fancy box. I don't know what it was called, but a cut glass from Crate & Barrel. And then this final one I got on Amazon. So if you're interested in that one, I'll leave a link in the description. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this video. It's been a long time coming. I've been holding off. Out of all the cocktail channels, I thought, hey, let's wait. Let's do like 425 videos before you do one on the Old Fashioned. And here we are. So if you enjoyed this video, give it a like below. Consider subscribing to the channel. And if you would like to support this channel more, go check out my Patreon page. Otherwise, I will see you on the next one. Sing with joyous hearts.