A True Classic: The Old Fashioned Cocktail
The drink we know today as an Old Fashioned cocktail, is essentially whiskey added to muddled sugar and bitters served with a twist in its namesake glass, a short, round tumbler.
The recipe had evolved over time from what was originally known as the “Whiskey Cocktail.” Around the 19th century, apothecaries would serve this drink hoping to relieve people of pain or illness by mixing spirits with bitters, making it more palatable.
Around this time, when the word “cocktail” was first used in print, it was defined as a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar – describing the age-old mixture used by the apothecaries and the base of the modern day Old Fashioned.
By the 1860s, it was common for orange curaçao, absinthe, maraschino, chartreuse, and other liqueurs to be added to the cocktail. The original recipe, cited in the print definition, was referred to as "old-fashioned" and customers that preferred their cocktails made that way would order them be made the "old-fashioned" way.
Around this time a book entitled Jerry Thomas' Bartenders Guide: How To Mix Drinks is published, giving instructions and recipes from the early days of bartending. This book contains one of the first printed recipes for an Old Fashioned cocktail using Holland gin.
About Crescent Schools
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You can be ready to bartend in just three weeks. Be around fun people and have cash in your pocket every night as a mixologist, or claim your place in the ever-growing casino gaming industry in as little as three months. Financial aid is available, if qualified. You can start one of Crescent's top-quality programs with no money down.
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