Old fashioned (cocktail): Difference between revisions

Early cocktails primarily used Holland gin or brandy, and did not use ice;{{sfn|Wondrich|2015|p=217}} they consisted of spirit, water, sugar, and bitters, often garnished with a grating of nutmeg. Sugar in turn was cut from a [[sugarloaf]]. By the 1860s, cocktails were generally iced, sugar syrup generally replaced solid sugar, whiskey had become a popular spirit, and a lemon twist replaced nutmeg as a garnish.{{sfn|Wondrich|2015|p=230}} By the time "old-fashioned cocktails" started to be referred to in the 1880s, this still referred to various spirits, but specified a lump of sugar, rather than syrup, and sometimes left a spoon in the glass, to stir or eat the partially undissolved sugar. This continued until Prohibition.

After the repeal of Prohibition, recipes for an "old-fashioned" in the 1930s specified whiskey, and included other fruit (orange slice, cherry), which is reflected in the IBA recipe. These recipes existed prior to Prohibition, but were considered different cocktails, not an old fashioned. With the [[cocktail renaissance]] in the 2000s, craft cocktail versions returned to the pre-Prohibition recipes, with only a lemon twist (or orange twist, or both, known as "rabbit ears"). By the 2020s, craft cocktail versions generally used sugar syrup, rather than solid sugar, due to better dissolving, consistency, and speed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://punchdrink.com/articles/best-old-fashioned-cocktail-recipe/ |title=In Search of the Ultimate Old-Fashioned |date=2024-03-29 |work=Punch |first=Chloe |last=Frechette}}</ref>