Cocktails, you say? Surely you of all people wouldn’t advocate mixing whisky, adulterating a delightful dram with sweet-this, sour-that and brightly-coloured-the-other?
Well, we’re not as dully conservative as all that. Obviously, be sensible with what you’re mixing – you might want to think twice, for example, about mixing that lovely Bladnoch with Coca-Cola (and heck, you’ll surely want to try something a bit more sophisticated than a Jack and Coke) – but sometimes a cocktail is just what the doctor ordered. And if you’re in the mood for a cocktail, you of course want a whisky-based cocktail.
The first we’ll talk about is the doyen of mixed drinks, the Old Fashioned, a drink so iconic that they named a glass after it. One of the six basic cocktails in Embury’s 1948 classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,the austerely elegant Old Fashioned has accumulated plenty of added extras over the years. At its heart, though, are three core components:
- Sugar
- Bitters
- Whiskey
You can dissolve an ice cube in bitters then add the spirit, or muddle the sugar with water, or even use a syrup. While rye whiskey is traditional, all kinds of North American whiskey are commonly used. But put these three ingredients together, and you’ve an Old Fashioned. Add a twist of orange for a little visual flair – and if you like, serve it over ice, though it’s not compulsory. You can’t go far wrong with a cocktail that’s almost wholly whiskey!
The drink of choice for Mad Men‘s Don Draper
During the middle of the last century, it became almost a fruit cocktail of sorts. Orange, cherry, lemon and all sorts would get muddled together. Its messy, pulpy nadir came in the 1970s, as the New York Times recently noted:
“It had to be among the most disgusting drinks I encountered when I first tended bar,” the cocktail historian Anistatia Miller said. “Orange, lemon and maraschino cherry muddled with sugar and bitters, then topped with ice, whiskey and soda. That’s how I was taught to make them. And for the life of me, I couldn’t believe anyone would drink them.”
The Old Fashioned completely dropped off many cocktail menus towards the tail end of the twentieth century, but over the last few years it has enjoyed a real resurgence. It’s now ‘one of the most requested mixed drinks at some of New York’s newest and most self-consciously artisanal drinking dens’. There’s a website dedicated to explaining in a careful and considered manner how to make a proper Old Fashioned. If you find yourself in a cocktail bar, particularly if you’re looking to cultivate an aura of suave sophistication, order yourself one – and keep a careful eye on just what the bartender puts in it.
How much do you think the Old-fashioned resurgence has to do with its inherent tastiness, given the range of other drinks available, or it’s prominent status in Mad Men, and the general adoption of that era as a style statement in many walks of life, drinking included? I am surprised by how many of these I see being ordered, then discretely left before moving onto something else entirely.
Yes, that’s a good (and I think a very valid) point. It reminds me of a piece I recently read bemoaning Mad Men’s over-use as a cultural reference point in the New York Times.
I think it may be that many people ordering it aren’t whiskey fans in the first place, and don’t realise that they’re ordering a drink that’s about 95% whiskey, albeit with mild seasoning, if you like.