Celebrate National Cocktail Day in Style

Mar 14, 2023

As you will know if you’ve been keeping up with our newsletters, cocktails have a long and storied history. These tasty mixed drinks have been mixed by bartenders like as far back as the 1800’s. The evolutions of these drinks are fascinating and well worth exploring if you’re into that kind of thing. For today though we’d like to focus on one drink, and what many to be consider the original cocktail, the Old Fashioned. Back around 1806 a recipe book defined a Cocktail as a mix of water, spirits of any kind, bitters and sugar. If you consider the water that comes from the ice when your stir your old fashioned this recipe looks pretty familiar. 

Over the coming years, the cocktail evolved into the Fancy Cocktails which included the addition of dashes of curacao, and later into the Improved Cocktail which included dashes of Maraschino and Absinthe. By the 1880’s customers we’re starting to look back to the good old days and had started ordering “Old Fashioned cocktails” with the expectation of receiving a drink along the lines of our original 1806 recipe. As you can see the Old Fashioned really lives up to its name! 

 

Let’s take a look at how to make it: 

Make sure to try out all our combo suggestions!

 

Johnnie Walker Old Fashioned 

A delicious take on the classic utilising the versatile Johnnie Walker Black Label 

• 60ml Johnnie Walker Black Label 
• 10ml Sugar Syrup 
• 2 Dashes Bitters 
• Orange Zest Garnish 
• Rocks Glass 
• Cubed Ice 

 

Method: 

Add the ingredients to a mixed glass and stir until chilled (at least 20 seconds). Taste for dilution and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and add your garnish. 

Standard Drinks approx. 1.9 

 

Bulleit Bourbon Old Fashioned 

Light and Zesty. Aviation pairs brilliantly with citrus and tonic. 

• 60ml Bulleit Bourbon 
• 10ml Sugar Syrup 
• 2 Dashes Bitters 
• Orange Zest Garnish 
• Rocks Glass 
• Cubed Ice 

 

Method: 

Add the ingredients to a mixed glass and stir until chilled (at least 20 seconds). Taste for dilution and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and add your garnish. 

Standard Drinks approx. 2.1 

 

Food pairing: 

Dark Spirits and Whiskies are rich and complex in nature and the Old Fashioned builds on that flavour with some added sweetness, along with spice from the bitters whilst adding dilution which will bring out the flavours of your base spirit.  

These Old Fashioned recipes are an ideal fit for the after-dinner occasion and could be recommended in place of a dessert. Alternatively, try serving them with some chocolate-coated Almonds. 

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