⭐ This is the drink the Old Fashioned was invented to complain about.
Jerry Thomas published How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion in 1862 — the first cocktail book printed in America. In it he gives a plain Whiskey Cocktail, which is the 1806 definition with the spirit pinned down. And right alongside it he gives the Improved version: the same drink plus a dash of maraschino and a dash of absinthe.
The vocabulary is the whole story. By 1862 you already needed an adjective to distinguish the fancy version from the plain one — which means the fancy version was common enough to need distinguishing. Twenty years later, drinkers who wanted the plain article had to ask for it the old-fashioned way, and the name stuck.
Make this one, then make a plain one, and you will understand the entire argument in about four minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 oz rye whiskey (or bourbon)
- 1 tsp rich simple syrup, or gum syrup
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 dash orange bitters
- 1 barspoon maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
- 1 dash absinthe
- 1 wide strip lemon peel
- Ice for stirring
Directions
- Combine the whiskey, syrup, both bitters, maraschino and absinthe in a mixing glass.
- Add ice and stir 20–25 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled rocks glass — over one large cube, or straight up if you want it closer to the way Thomas served it.
- Express a lemon peel over the surface and drop it in.
Notes
The absinthe is a dash, not a pour. It is doing what an absinthe rinse does in a Sazerac — supplying aroma, not flavour. Too much and the whole drink is anise.
Maraschino liqueur is not cherry syrup. It is distilled from whole marasca cherries, pits included, which is where its almond-adjacent note comes from. Luxardo is the standard bottle and it is the same house that makes the cocktail cherries.
Try it as an experiment in pairs. Make this and a plain Old Fashioned, Classic side by side. The Improved is more complicated and more decorated; the plain one lets you taste the whiskey. Whether that is an improvement is the argument the whole drink is named after, and it is genuinely worth having with a glass in your hand.
History in full: brewing.fubsypoly.com/mixed-drinks/old-fashioned/