"Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters-it is vulgarly called a bittered sling."- From an article in the Hudson, New York paper, The Balance and Columbian Repository, written in 1806 and the first known definition of the cocktail.
As the world grows more confusing and complicated, there are few things as reliable and calming as a well-made, well-balanced cocktail. One of the many reasons I enjoy "Mad Men" is that the cocktail was still an essential part of American cultural life and three-Martini lunches were yet to be frowned upon. The trend in recent years is to unnecessarily complicate drinks by infusing all manner of things into spirits (fruit, pepper, beets) and placing things in cocktails that have no business being there, like coffee beans or cinnamon sticks or vodka. I find it somewhat distressing, but then I'm rather traditional on drink matters, favoring old stand-bys over trendy new concoctions. If you like the taste of alcohol then you don't go out of your way to disguise it and sweeten it, which I find many of the newer cocktails do. I want to taste it; otherwise I feel a little cheated.
One of the oldest American cocktails is the Old-Fashioned. Perhaps because it seems so simple-it's essential whiskey cut with sugar and water-people seem to want to muck with it. I recently read Kingsley Amis's collected pieces on drinking, Everyday Drinking. While he was one of the most knowledgeable and wittiest drink writers of his time, drawing heavily on first hand experience, he inexplicably includes orange juice in his Old-Fashioned recipe. I've found that, despite its simplicity, this is one of the diciest drinks to order out; some bartenders muddle it with cherry juice, some muddle it with the fruit that should be the garnish, some top it with soda water. One douchey-looking bartender didn't even know how to make it, telling us he couldn't mix it because the coffee maker was broken and he had no hot water. I'm still not sure what he imagined an Old-Fashioned was.
It's a drinker's cocktail and one for whiskey lovers. The water and ice make it a little more sippable, without compromising the flavor, and the bitters add a little more depth. Incidentally, bourbon is whiskey that is as least 51% corn. The name came from Bourbon County, Kentucky and originally all Bourbon originated in Kentucky. Much of it still does (Wild Turkey, Beam, Bulleit), but it can conceivably be produced anywhere.
This is the recipe I've been using, from a 1999 GQ article by Terry Sullivan, which was a key influence on my drinking. Modify as you see fit.
Ingredients
3 ounces bourbon
Dash of bitters
Sugar cube
Water
Ice
Put the sugar cube in a glass, add a little water and a dash of bitters, and muddle vigorously. The sugar should be as dissolved as possible. Add ice and bourbon, then garnish with a cherry and orange slice.
In Portland, Oregon try one at: The Secret Society (116 N.E. Russell St.)
by Lukas Sherman
