Ingredients
- 2 oz Bourbon (see notes)
- 1/3 oz Simple Syrup (ALWAYS use homemade)
- 3 dashes Angostura
- 3 dashes orange bitters
- 1-2 Dashes Orange Bitters
- Orange & Lemon Peel for garnish
Maraska, Luxardo, or Fabbriv Cocktail Cherry
- 1 CLEAR large square ice cube
Directions
- Add bourbon, simple syrup, and both bitters to the glass.
- If smoking, put this into the smoker and smoke then pour back into the glass.
- Peel a wide piece of the orange rind being careful not to get too much pith. Also don’t touch the orange as the oils will be transferred to your fingers.
- Fold the peel in half lengthwise with the skin side out. Pinch this between your fingers and watch the orange essential oils “squirt” onto the top layer of the drink.
- Now twist over glass and then run around the rim of the glass and then toss rind into glass
- Add the cherry
- Enjoy
Notes
The best bourbons are: Angel’s Envy Four Roses small batch Heaven’s Door
Next best are: Elijah Craig Larceny Old Forester 1870 Knob Creek
The long version: the Old Fashioned deep dive at https://brewing.fubsypoly.com/mixed-drinks/old-fashioned/ is written around this recipe — ten volumes on where the drink came from, what each of its four parts actually controls, why these bourbons suit it, the cherry argument, the ice, and what smoke is doing chemically. The unsmoked build is Old Fashioned, Classic.
How I actually smoke it — the flask method. Build the drink complete but with no ice, and pour it into a 1 litre flat-bottomed flask. Start the smoke generator and put the hose in the neck. Leave it about a minute while I get the glass and the big cube ready. Then swirl it in the flask and pour it over the ice.
The flask does four things a cloche does not: the narrow neck traps the smoke so it needs no lid, the flat bottom spreads two ounces across a big surface where the smoke actually deposits, the drink smokes with no ice in it so dilution stays on my schedule instead of the smoke’s, and the swirl at the end is active mixing rather than waiting. The minute costs nothing because it is the minute I would spend on the glass anyway.
⚠ Buy the flask new and keep it for the bar — never one that has held solvents. Rinse it straight after; smoke residue is a tar and it builds a brown film.