1 sugar cube
3 or 4 drops aromatic bitters
2 or 3 drops orange bitters (optional)
Water
2 oz rye whiskey
Orange twist
Place sugar cube in an old fashioned or rocks glass. Add bitters and enough water to moisten cube, then crush with a bar spoon or muddler. Add whiskey, stir to combine, and finish with an orange twist and a large ice cube.
Interesting fact:
When the word “cocktail” was originally coined, it didn’t mean a category of drinks, but was actually referring to a specific mixed drink that we know today as the Old Fashioned.
The recipe first appeared in print in The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York in 1806.
“Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, in as much as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.”