The last time we blind-tasted Old-Fashioneds, back in 2018, the cocktail had found itself caught between two versions. There were those made with a muddled, bitters-soaked sugar cube—what might be deemed the more old-fashioned Old-Fashioned—and those made with a sugar syrup, be it simple or Demerara, as the sweetener. (The muddled fruit of the disco Old-Fashioned had long since been dispatched.) Both versions have precedent in the pre-Prohibition era, but the latter, decidedly less theatrical but ultimately more consistent—as no sugar granules are left unincorporated at the bottom of the glass—has, in the past six years, become the streamlined standard-bearer of the modern era.
This truth played out at our recent blind tasting at Brooklyn’s Long Island Bar, in which only one of the 10 recipes sampled opted for the sugar cube method. On the whole, the recipes did not stray beyond the guardrails of the classic Old-Fashioned blueprint—whiskey, sugar, bitters—varying only in their choice of each requisite element. Although it’s a simple drink on paper, getting those elements to harmonize is a matter of precision. “It’s a razor-thin drink,” said Toby Cecchini, owner of The Long Island Bar. “There’s nothing to hide behind.” Any misstep in quantity, ratio or preparation could result in a drink that is too hot, too flabby, too sweet.
The assembled judges were Cecchini, Sarah Morrissey (Le Veau d’Or) and Lucinda Sterling (owner, Seaborne), along with myself, Mary Anne Porto (associate editor, Punch) and Annie Harrigan (editorial coordinator, Punch, Eater and Thrillist). All agreed that the drink is best when made with a whiskey (rye or bourbon) not below barrel-proof, sugar syrup (“just a tiny dollop,” according to Cecchini, i.e., less than a quarter-ounce) and two types of citrus twists, or “bunny ears,” of orange and lemon to enhance the aromatics of the requisite bitters. “The orange sweetens it and the lemon dries it out,” explains Morrissey.
Where the judges disagreed was on the appropriate preparation: built in the glass or stirred and strained. Cecchini was adamant that it be stirred before entering the glass. “I pray at the altar of dilution,” he said, noting that stirring brought down the temperature and ensured that some of the common pitfalls facing the drink—chiefly, that it can be too “hot,” or boozy—were dispensed with. Morrissey and Sterling, meanwhile, were in favor of the built-in-glass approach, finding it a better protection against another common pitfall: overdilution. In both cases, the desired result is the same: an integrated cocktail that is aromatic and whiskey-forward, with just the right amount of sweetness (it should not read as sweet) and dilution (Sterling recommends stirring it in the glass until it appears almost milky). As Sterling explains, if the drink is made right, “the first sip should be the peak.”
The unequivocal winner of the tasting delivered from the very first sip. Tom Macy, who also took the top spot at our tasting in 2018, builds his Old-Fashioned on two ounces of Wild Turkey 101 rye, a teaspoon of 2:1 Demerara syrup and three dashes of his personalized bitters blend known as Dad’s Bitters—a mix of Angostura, Bitter Truth orange and Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter bitters—stirred and strained, then garnished with both lemon and orange twists. “You can taste both garnishes, but they don’t dominate,” said Morrissey. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a recipe that was the result of more than 40 attempts in the making, Macy’s Old-Fashioned was deemed “dead on” by Cecchini and “far and away the best one,” by Sterling.
Taking second place was the Old-Fashioned by Arvid Brown, of Room for Improvement in Portland, Maine. His version is made with a high-proof bourbon, specifically Old Grand-Dad 114, two bar spoons of 1:1 Demerara syrup, four dashes of Angostura and a two dashes of “Rango”—an equal-parts blend of Regans’ orange bitters and Angostura orange bitters. The drink is built in the glass and garnished with an expressed orange twist and a cherry, the latter being the only quibble among the judges, who thought a cherry did not belong in the drink. Morrissey described the drink as “fresh” and all the judges were pleased with the drink’s aromatics and balance.
Taken together, the two winners seem to prove that—rye or bourbon, stirred or built in the glass—what matters most in an Old-Fashioned is the selection and interaction of all of the elements. For a drink that Cecchini describes as “slightly inflected whiskey,” these two get the inflections just right.
