LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2023

PLAYING FAVOURITES

The Old Fashioned One of the oldest of them all, and it works for any kind of whisk(e)y, though probably bourbon is best.

Close Kin Over the years, fans have rung

the changes by making exactly the same cocktail but with a different spirit. In the 1930s, an Old Fashioned Dutch was a thing, switching a Dutch genever gin like Bols or De Kuyper for the whiskey. Today, a Brandy Old Fashioned, made with a full complement of fruit and Cognac instead of bourbon, is the unofficial cocktail of the state of Wisconsin.

THE TWISTS

Some people like to add a maraschino cherry and a slice of orange to the sugar and bitters, and muddle everything well before building the drink. Others are outraged by this practice, convinced that a twist of lemon or orange as a garnish is all the fruit needed. Jerry Thomas’s “Bogart’s bitters” (see below) is assumed to be a mistake—he must have meant Boker’s bitters, a very popular 19th-century brand with a rich mocha note. Though Angostura is most often used today, chocolate bitters might be closer to the original. Change up the sweetener by using a flavoured sugar or syrup.

The Classic Jessica Huras offered an exemplary Old Fashioned in our Autumn 2021 issue, starting with a sugar cube (or 1/2 tsp/2 mL sugar) and 3 dashes Angostura bitters, muddled until the sugar dissolves. Add 2 oz bourbon (or rye) and stir. Add a single large ice cube and gently stir until chilled. Take orange peel and twist it over the glass to express the oil before dropping it in. So simple—and no water or soda in sight. Which bourbon? You can’t go wrong with bold, fruity Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey ( LCBO 605063, $44.45 ): it adds its own vanilla caramel note to the cocktail.

When members of the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Ky., ordered an “old-fashioned whiskey cocktail” during the 1880s, that was exactly what they wanted. Not something new-fangled, but a drink like the simply named Whiskey Cocktail in How to Mix Drinks (aka The Bar-Tender’s Guide ), the first-ever cocktail manual published in the U.S., written by celebrity bartender Jerry Thomas and published in 1862. Thomas called for “3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup, 2 do. bitters (Bogart’s), 1 wine-glass of whiskey, and a piece of lemon peel. Fill one-third full of fine ice; shake and strain in a fancy red wine-glass.” To him, the cocktail was thoroughly modern, of course: it took time before it earned the name Old Fashioned. HISTORY

Find the recipe at LCBO.com/ fdautumn23

54 FOOD & DRINK AUTUMN 2023