Whiskey Cocktail
The cocktail is older than old-fashioned. This particular cocktail in particular most definitely is. The Old Fashioned, usually made with bourbon, always with the slice of orange, is newer than the cocktail. According to Imbibe!, the Old Fashioned exists because cocktails started getting really fancy and inventive — and likely sometimes quite bad and silly. People who wanted a proper cocktail, the kind made with sugar, bitters, spirits, and water, had to find some way to indicate what they wanted as the word “cocktail” had become incredibly vague. But, even the Old Fashioned is a little fancy as the orange peel and the cherry are innovations on an even older, and possibly ancient, recipe.
For a long while, I hadn’t tried any of the actual cocktails in The Bar-Tender’s Guide because I couldn’t find food-grade gum arabic, and so I didn’t have gum syrup. Then, I tracked down gum arabic, and I even made the syrup, but I got horribly distracted. So, here I present you the very first true cocktail I have made strictly by the book.
109. Whiskey Cocktail
(Use small bar glass)
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.
I made this using 1 tsp. of gum syrup, 2 dashes of bitters, 2 oz. of whiskey and a piece of lemon peel. The whiskey measure is based on what I’ve seen as a good estimate of what an 1800s “wine glass” might be, and the “do.” basically means “ditto” to the above measure — so, 2 dashes of bitters as dashes was the previously used measure.
You can’t go more “true cocktail” than this. It’s a pleasant drink, best done with something you wouldn’t mind sipping plain. I like it, but I prefer an Old Fashioned on the rocks, myself. I like the little added acid from the orange, and I’m a total sucker for a cherry, especially a good one (by which I mean, one that has not been drained of its vital life force and crammed full of red dye no. 5).
And, for vanity’s sake, please note that I have greatly improved at making lemon twists.
Happy weekend to all!
