I learned how to drink alcohol between the ages of 21 and 25.
Learning how to drink is an exercise in irony. It’s like you have to learn how not to drink in order to learn how to properly drink.
The lessons learned are often far too numerous and embarrassing to acknowledge.
Stay away from that dark rum. You didn’t need to drink whatever was in the paper bag. Any booze made in a bathtub is really really really not a good idea. A shot on the way home from the bar is 100% foolish. Every drink in Vegas will somehow multiply itself by WAY TOO MANY! Tequila… ugh. Cheap gin is downright criminal. Dropping a shot into any other drink and consuming it quickly should be reserved for sushi karaoke bars, or better yet… NEVER. Don’t Jagermeister anything. You are not Tyra Banks in Coyote Ugly before she went to law school. Vodka is not spicy water.
The lessons really are too many to chronicle. I mean…
I found my drink by figuring out what wasn’t my drink, a feat I hope you all approach gingerly. My drink order: A Maker’s Mark Manhattan, up, with two cherries. Gah… just to think of 21-year-old me ordering that drink makes me roll my eyes. I was going for sophistication, poise, edge, knowledge, with a touch of sweetness. Also… gag me with a spoon. Right? I think mostly I was trying to seem cool enough not to get carded.
These days, anyone that cards me is an angel sent from heaven. Literally? My drink of choice currently: an Old Fashioned, no cherry, extra twist and what kind of Rye Whiskey do you like best, bartender? It’s simple and classic and admits defeat when it comes to proper rye whiskey knowledge. I think it might also betray my Mad Men fan girl tendencies but I’m ok with that.
Here’s how!
Let’s do this one together.
Rocks glasses, a bit of turbinado sugar (if you don’t have sugar cubes), ice cubes (I love these super square cubes), bitters, club soda, rye whiskey (Bulleit Rye is dreamy), lemon and orange peel, and GO!
A bit of sugar in the glass. Just a small spoonful will do.
Bitters are sprinkled over the sugar. Three dashes.
A tiny splash of club soda over the sugar and bitters. Muddle muddle!
Add the ice. Add the whiskey!
Peel lemon and orange zest from the fruit and spritz zest (not pith) side down into the cocktail. This will release the essential oils into the cocktail. I like to rub the zest along the rim of the glass… you know, like a real bartender (mixologist/cocktail maker/drinkist).
And there you have it!
A very fine, extra refined cocktail. Enjoy one, not five. We’re grown (I guess…).
The Old-Fashioned
makes 2 cocktails
2 raw sugar cubes (or small spoonfuls of raw/turbinado sugar)
6 dashes bitters
2 quick splashes club soda
2 large or 4 medium ice cubes
4 ounces rye whiskey
2 lemon peels
2 orange peels
Find yourself two nice rocks glasses. Place a sugar cube in each glass. Drop three drops of bitter atop each sugar cube. Add just a splash (like 1 teaspoon) of club soda to each glass. Use a muddler to crush and mix the sugar and bitters.
Add one large or two medium ice cubes to each glass.
Add two ounces of whiskey to each glass.
Squeeze the yellow rind side of the lemon peel into the glass. Run the yellow rind around the rim of the glass. Drop the rind into the glass as garnish. Do the same for the orange. Serve and enjoy immediately.
Jill
Hi there, can you tell where you got the glasses?? would love to serve desserts in them as well.
Erin B.
Old-fashioned is totally my favorite too! Though I usually go for bourbon (St. Georges’ B&E or Buffalo Trace are my favorites). Someone made me a rye whiskey sour at some point and it left me complete averse to rye. Though really, it very well could have been that sour on sour thing, so I probably should give rye another chance.
I only just discovered manhattans and they aren’t too bad either =)
Melanie
You should try VO Presbyterians!! They are our family’s drink, and they are absolutely delicious. We like to joke that our kids were weaned on whiskey ;)
samantha anastasiou
hello, where did you get the glasses and the mixers? thank you!
Sini | my blue&white kitchen
Oh yes, let’s do this one! What a cocktail. Also, I love your background.
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
I love a solid old fashioned! Yum!
Tracy
I usually keep my bourbon simple with a splash of ginger beer, but this old fashioned looks perfectly lovely! One thing, I’m slightly frightened of bitters, any suggestions of brands to get me out of my comfort zone?
Roger
I would also muddle a cherry and make it with Makers Mark.
Xochi Navarro
Just made one, it’s going to be a good Friday. Cheers! :)
C
old fashioneds certainly are lovely but have you ever tried a sazerac? you couldn’t ask for a better city to explore the art of making this libation!
Erin
I’m 22 and in college. You totally described the process I’m somewhat in the midst of. I definitely laughed a quite a bit reading the lessons you mentioned.
Emily
If you enjoy old fashions and manhattans, you should try a suburban! A great bourbon cocktail I recently discovered.
sandra
Another Wisconsin girl here. It’s not an old-fashioned unless it uses brandy :)
bakerkat
I love Old Fashions. Thanks for the recipe. I think most of us learned about drinking the hard way. I ordered a martini for my first drink when I came of age. I also thought I was being cool. I really enjoyed reading this.
Ellen
That does look perfect! The Bulleit rye is wonderful…although I must confess an addiction to Luxardo cherries so I’d probably add one of those:)
Babs
Joy – spot on post about learning to drink. Beer and wine have usually led to good fun times, but liquor has been more of a frenemy. It has taken me years to find my spirit of choice. I tried (and tried) to make a go of it with bourbon/whiskey, but it’s just not my thing. I would recommend you give rum, dark or light, another try. Pampero Aniversario or Zaya on the rocks is my drink of choice for a second cocktail, a Negroni on the rocks is usually my first.
Lin
Oh I just discovered an Old Fashioned about a month ago and I absolutely love them! I will have to try them with the rye whiskey. I have been letting my bartender decide what to use and some do use bourbon. I have loved them all so far. Now I need to learn to make them at home so thank you for this timely post Joy! Hope you and New Orleans are loving each other!
calista
I tend to go the other way with my Old Fashioneds. I hold the orange and double up the cherries. And I make them with Woodford Reserve. Delish.
jo
I’ve been adding Way too much soda, no wonder they suck. Oh, and the bitters, why must I always keep shaken it in, when the recipe says “3 shakes”?!
Chickadee
Joy,
Where are these cocktail glasses from? They are adorable and I need them in my life :)
ambergale
Joy, is there anyway you could indulge us with some information about those glasses? They are really beautiful!
Carlinne @Cook with 2 Chicks
Cheers!
pinkpatisserie
Love a good brown juice drink! My favorite is a Manhattan, but a good ole Old Fashioned is hard to beat! Beautiful glasses too…
Mallory @ Because I Like Chocolate
I generally don’t drink hard liquor but I do like a good old fashioned. It’s the sweetness and the bitters. I do enjoy the cherry in there though.
Katie H.
Asking the bartender or server what she recommends is always the way to go. You try new things, get good recommendations, and make a quasi-friend. Cheers!
And, where oh where is that beautiful muddle from? I really need to upgrade my plastic one. It came free with a handle of Bacardi and I’ve kept it around since my mid twenties. The bat has worn off.
Katie H.
*muddler.
Emily
I remember going to a casino bar when I was not quite 21 and ordering a Sprite with Apple Pucker, and immediately getting asked for the ID I did not have. Jeez, I wonder why? My early 20s were all about ordering sex on the beach, bright blue AMFs, copper camels, and other ridiculous drinks. Then I pretty much stopped going to bars and now make more simple drinks at home.
I do have a question…my favorite drink lately is the dark & stormy, but I’ve never ordered it at a bar because I’ve been unsure whether or not most bars stock ginger beer and I never want to look foolish to the bartender. What do you all think?
shelly
dont be afraid to ask! its not foolish to ask for something you want, ginger beer is super popular, dare i say trendy right now, at least where i am. if anyone would look foolish, its the bar/bartender for not knowing/not being well stocked! and even if they dont have it, if enough people ask for it eventually they will figure out there is a demand for it and buy some!
Cecile
I know Old Fashions were very popular when I was a girl, which coincides, approximately, with the era of ‘Mad Men’. I’d never tried a Manhattan until I was past 50 – and found them to be very potent drinks indeed! And – I seem to have had much of the same ‘bad decision making incidents’ (as far as drinking…) as you did in my youth!!
Katie
I may have snorted at my desk at, ‘vodka isn’t spicy water’. Thanks for that one! I live in a college town, so all the bars here specialize in various shots and bombs and slammers and garishly colored, instant-hangover beverages. It’s nice to be reminded that civilized humans drinking classy cocktails do exist in the world. Especially since last weekend I tried to order a gin martini and was told they had no vermouth, because “the younger crowd” doesn’t order too many martinis (I’m only 28 – is that a cue to laugh or cry?).
Taylor
I still don’t know how to order a proper drink. But in my defense I’m not yet 22. I’m not a big drinker at all (and by not big, I mean a glass of wine sipped at a very very slow pace is okay with me), but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to order something fancy when we went out.
xoxo
Taylor
crosscountrycajun
My favorite drink made by one of my favorite bloggers. Love it – now I need to get to drink making! So happy that you moved to New Orleans – I lived there for several years going to college at Tulane and am from Houma (about an hour south of NOLA). It’s a city like no other!
Todd
Perfectly, Joy, perfection…
p.s. I agree with everything you said, except the part about Tyra. You can’t take that away from me ;)
joythebaker
TODD! amazing. also can you have a How To Shoot Cocktails workshop? I need that from you. THANKS!
Gabby @ the veggie nook
I just got into old fashions (thank you Mad Men…) so I’m so happy you posted a recipe so I can enjoy them at home!!
Jen
As a born-and-bred Wisconsinite, I love brandy old-fashioneds. However, when in the cheese state, one orders an old-fashioned either sour (with Fresca) or sweet (with 7-Up). I prefer mine sweet with olives as garnish. I live across the border in Minnesota now and cannot find a Wisconsin-proper old-fashioned at any of the bars here. So sad.
shelly
i love you for loving old fashioneds. I need to buy some bitters and make my own, but its been my go-to drink at the bar lately. dont judge me too harshly for keeping the cherries in it. and “Tyra Banks bf she went to law school?” LOL.
Dale
There is nothing like a well made cocktail. Maybe I am weird but I can (and have) sit at the bar for hours watching the men and women behind the bar do their thing – its like observing a mad scientist at work. I read The Drunken Botanist a few months ago and highly recommend it if you really want to geek out on the plants & herbs that go into liquors/cocktails.
Nikki DeMarco (@nikkilooch)
I love, love old fashioneds. There’s something about that stout glass with clinking ice cubes that makes me feel like I know what to drink. Just like you said, it’s a learning process. Nothing showy and nothing too sweet.
Thanks for sharing an awesome recipe.
Rae
I’m a born and raised Wisconsinite (Cheesehead if you will) and we’ve long loved the Old Fashioned, however we make ours mostly with Brandy which is delicious. And always the cherry, muddled. Next time you are in or near Madison, there’s a great restaurant on the capital square called- wait for it- The Old Fashioned. Great drinks and great food!
Mallory
So good to see my favorite drink on a Friday morning…dreaming of 5 o’clock (or maybe 4:30 :)
jean
Sorry, Joy, meant Old Fashioned, not Manhattan!
jean
I love how Manhattans are making a comeback. It was my Dad’s signature drink made with Old Grand Dad Whiskey. He’d have one (or two) every night when he came home before dinner.I still remember the first time he let me make one for him. He just passed away 4 months ago at 91 so it’s fitting that I’m seeing Manhattans pop up allover. When my 2 kids were born he became “GrandDad”.
Georgie
I’m at that weird stage where I know what cocktails and wine I like to drink and I’m learning all about different spirits, bitters and cocktail types, but I still get it hideously wrong, like, once a month and my friends have to fill me in on all the “hilarious” bits I don’t remember. I’m working on it.
Also I don’t think I’ve ever had an Old Fashioned with soda water in it, is that standard in the US?
Vickie
sounds delicious – & I love those glasses :)
Carol Anne @ Rock Salt
I had no idea that Bulleit made a rye – this is huge news!
joythebaker
it’s huge, REALLY GREAT, news.
Tamsin | A Certain Adventure
mmm, this looks like a good old grown-up drink. I’m from the UK so my ‘learning to drink phase’ was from the ages of 18-21…and i completely agree with you on the lessons learned the hard way. i used to think tequila was so cool but now i realise it’s pure evil! and shots for the road are always, always a bad idea. thanks for sharing your recipe!
Averie @ Averie Cooks
Looks awesome & I love your story-telling in the post, Joy! Pinned
Jessica (bakecetera)
this is my favourite cocktail! i’m with you – i normally ask the bartender to make it in “their house way”, but with a bourbon. i’m looking forward to trying your version though ! happy friday :)
Elana
I’m with you on skipping the cherry. Apparently bartenders will call it a fruit bowl and secretly sneer at you. I hate all the secret sneering.
Adore those glasses.
joythebaker
secret sneering is uncalled for.