22 Jan What We’ve Been Drinking: Tequila Old Fashioned 

What We’ve Been Drinking: Tequila Old Fashioned 

As we mentioned in our brief history of the cocktail, the Old Fashioned is, perhaps unsurprisingly, more or less the original cocktail. We think now of the Old Fashioned as a whiskey drink. It actually may have started as a brandy drink. Brandy was the favored spirit in the French-influenced Louisiana Territory where cocktails may have gotten their start. When French brandy was hard to get, people switched to the more locally available whiskeys. The jump from brandy to whiskey is one example of a larger theme. In its beginning, the Old Fashioned wasn’t a specific recipe, but a class of drink. They weren’t called Old Fashioneds, of course, but simply ‘Cocktails,’ and they consisted of 1) whatever spirit you liked or could get your hands on, 2) some sugar, 3) some bitters, and 4) water.

In celebration of the original spirit of the Cocktail, we made ourselves a tequila old fashioned. You should give it a try, and meanwhile we’ll be trying out some other spirits in the Old Fashioned mode.

Ingredients

• 2 oz. tequila
• .5 oz agave syrup
• 1-2 dashes bitters (we used Bittermen’s mole bitters, which added a nice little bittersweet touch, but anything would work)
• lime wedge

Instructions

• Muddle agave, bitters, and lime wedge in an old fashioned glass (what else?)
• Add tequila and stir until mixed.
• Add ice, and serve