The Best Old Fashioned Recipe with California Bourbon

The Old Fashioned is the original cocktail — spirit, sugar, water, bitters — and the most forgiving template in the canon. Get the bourbon right and the rest is technique. Here's the version we make at the bar, with our high-rye Zanja-Madre Bourbon as the base.

Ingredients

• 2 oz Zanja-Madre Bourbon
• 1 sugar cube (or 0.25 oz simple syrup, or 1 tsp demerara sugar)
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 dash orange bitters
• Orange peel
• Brandied cherry (optional)
• 1 large ice cube

Method

1. Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a rocks glass. Saturate it with both bitters and a splash of water. Muddle until the cube breaks down into a paste.
2. Add a splash of bourbon and stir to dissolve any remaining sugar grit.
3. Add a single large ice cube.
4. Pour the rest of the bourbon over the ice.
5. Stir for ten seconds.
6. Express the orange peel over the surface (twist over the glass, rub the rim, drop it in). Add the cherry if using.

Notes

Why high-rye bourbon. A pure-corn bourbon (Maker's Mark, etc.) makes a softer, sweeter Old Fashioned. A high-rye bourbon brings spice that cuts through the sugar and bitters — the more interesting drink, in our opinion. Zanja-Madre Bourbon's high-rye mash bill is built for this cocktail.

Skip the muddled fruit. A 1990s-era bartending move is to muddle orange slices and cherries into the glass. Don't. Modern Old Fashioned form is to express the citrus oil, drop the peel, and let the cherry sit decoratively. The drink should taste like bourbon, not fruit salad.

One large ice cube. Surface area matters. A large cube melts slowly and dilutes the drink at the right rate. Crushed ice will turn the drink into a watery mess in three minutes.

Variations

• Smoked. Smoke the empty glass with a wood chip before building. Adds a campfire note.
• Maple. Replace the sugar with 0.25 oz pure maple syrup. Best in fall.
• Rye Old Fashioned. Same recipe with our Zanja-Madre Rye. Drier, spicier.
• Brandy Old Fashioned. The Wisconsin variant. Same template, brandy instead of bourbon.

Where to next

Shop Zanja-Madre Bourbon, learn the difference between bourbon and rye, or try our Manhattan recipe.