Almond Old Fashioned
The Almond Old Fashioned is a bourbon Old Fashioned with amaretto in place of the sugar, and the swap does more than sweeten. Amaretto is built on apricot kernels rather than nuts, and kernel carries a genuine bitterness behind the marzipan, so the drink arrives drier than the word almond suggests. That bitterness is what qualifies it for the job. Sugar sweetens and says nothing; amaretto sweetens and seasons at the same time, which is why the bitters can stay at two dashes and still be heard. Bourbon's vanilla and oak meet the marzipan halfway. The measure is the whole discipline. A Godfather pours amaretto as a near-equal partner to the spirit and drinks like a dessert; fifteen millilitres against sixty of bourbon keeps it in the sweetener's role, where it belongs. No one owns the drink. It appeared wherever both bottles already stood, which is most back bars, once the revival taught drinkers to treat the Old Fashioned's sweetener as a variable rather than a fixed ingredient.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange Twist
Ingredients
60ml
Something with enough body to stand up to a sweet liqueur. A wheated bourbon leans soft and disappears into the marzipan; a higher-rye bottling keeps a spine that reads through it.
15ml
Kernel character is the whole point. The cheap bottles are sugar and almond flavouring, and with no bitterness behind them the drink turns into dessert rather than an Old Fashioned.
2 dashes
Two dashes, no more. The amaretto is already seasoning as well as sweetening, so the bitters are here to hold the shape rather than to add another layer of spice.
Instructions
Add the bourbon, amaretto and bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 25 seconds.
Place one large cube in a rocks glass and strain over it.
Express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in.
Expert Tip
Measure the amaretto rather than pouring it. It is thick, it clings to the jigger, and a generous hand takes the drink from seasoned to sticky in about five millilitres. If you have only ever had this drink over-sweet, that is why. Buy amaretto that tastes of kernel rather than of almond essence. The cheap bottles are sugar and flavouring, and with nothing bitter behind them the drink loses the thing that makes the swap work at all. Stir it properly. Twenty-five seconds over cubed ice, because the liqueur's sugar needs dilution to stop it sitting heavy on the tongue, and a short stir leaves you drinking sweet bourbon rather than an Old Fashioned.
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
No one has a claim on this drink, and that is worth saying plainly rather than inventing an origin for it. It belongs to the era when the Old Fashioned stopped being a fixed recipe and became a frame: spirit, sweetener, bitters, ice, with the sweetener treated as the variable.
Once bartenders started reading it that way, every sweet bottle on the back bar got a turn, and amaretto was an obvious candidate because bourbon and amaretto were already drinking together in the Godfather. Versions appeared in enough places at once that no first version can be identified.
Why Amaretto Instead of Sugar
Amaretto is not usually made from almonds. The traditional base is apricot kernels, which taste of almond because they share the same compound, and kernel brings a bitterness that a nut does not. That bitterness is why the substitution works.
Sugar syrup in an Old Fashioned is silent. It softens the spirit's edges and contributes nothing of its own, which is the job. Amaretto does that job and then adds an opinion: marzipan on the way in, a faint bitter finish on the way out. The drink ends up drier than anyone expects from something that smells like a bakery, and the two dashes of Angostura have something to argue with rather than sitting on top of it.
The Fifteen Millilitres
A Godfather is scotch and amaretto in something close to partnership, often two to one, and it drinks like a dessert. This is the same pair of flavours held at a completely different ratio: fifteen millilitres against sixty of bourbon, which is roughly what you would use of sugar syrup.
Go to twenty and the marzipan starts leading. Go to thirty and you have made a Godfather with the wrong whiskey. The measure is the entire difference between a spirit-forward drink with an almond edge and a sweet drink with bourbon in it, which is why it is worth jiggering rather than guessing.
Orgeat, and the Other Almond
There is a version made with orgeat instead, and it is a genuinely different drink rather than a substitution. Orgeat is sweet almond and orange flower water with no bitterness at all, so it softens the bourbon and pushes the whole thing toward tiki.
It is pleasant and worth making once. It also loses the seasoning function entirely, so the bitters have to work harder and the drink needs a third dash to hold its shape.
How to Serve It
One large cube in a rocks glass, and an orange twist expressed over the surface before it goes in. The oil is not decoration here: citrus is the only bright thing in a glass of oak, sugar and stone-fruit kernel, and without it the first sip lands heavy.
After dinner is the drink's natural hour, which it inherits honestly from the Godfather.
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)The only major whiskey required to use a barrel once. New charred oak is the rule that defines bourbon, gives it its sweetness and colour, and incidentally supplies most of the world's Scotch and rum with somewhere to age.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Almond Old Fashioned?
A bourbon Old Fashioned with amaretto in place of the sugar syrup: 60ml bourbon, 15ml amaretto and two dashes of Angostura, stirred and served over one large cube with an orange twist. The amaretto sweetens and seasons at once.
How is it different from a Godfather?
Proportion. A Godfather pours amaretto as a near-equal partner to the spirit and drinks like a dessert; here it sits at fifteen millilitres against sixty of bourbon, doing the job sugar syrup would. Same two flavours, entirely different balance.
Can I use orgeat instead of amaretto?
You can, but it makes a different drink rather than a substitute one. Orgeat is sweet almond and orange flower water with no bitterness, so it softens the bourbon and pulls the drink toward tiki. Expect to add a third dash of bitters to compensate.
Does amaretto contain almonds?
Usually not. Most amaretto is built on apricot kernels, which carry the same compound that gives almonds their flavour, along with a bitterness real almonds lack. That bitterness is what lets the liqueur season the drink as well as sweeten it.
Master the Techniques
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Godfather
The Godfather is Scotch and amaretto over ice at two to one, and there is nothing else in it. It came out of the 1970s two-bottle wave along with the French Connection, which is the same formula with cognac, and the Godmother, which is the same formula with vodka. Three drinks, one liqueur, three different base spirits. The swap is what makes it interesting. Cognac's fruit meets amaretto's almond softly and the two settle together; Scotch's cereal dryness and its optional smoke give the almond something to argue with, and the drink lands drier and more angular than its French sibling, which is the more interesting of the two. The name came from the decade's biggest film with the era's usual paperwork, which is to say none. Marlon Brando's alleged fondness for it is the drink's one contested legend, and it has never been verified, which suits the subject rather well.
Fancy Free
The Fancy Free is an Old Fashioned that uses maraschino liqueur instead of sugar. Rye, 15ml of maraschino, and two kinds of bitters. That is the entire drink. The swap does more than sweeten. Maraschino is made from whole marasca cherries, stones included, and the stones give it a dry almond note that has very little to do with the cherry flavour people expect. So the drink lands drier than the ingredient list suggests, with an aromatic, faintly nutty edge that plain sugar could not supply. The two bitters are not a flourish. Angostura sits at the back with its clove and cinnamon, orange bitters sit at the front with their peel, and dropping either one collapses the drink from stereo to mono. It appears in the mid-century American collections, usually cited to Albert Stevens Crockett's Old Waldorf-Astoria books. The name is the temperament: an Old Fashioned with its tie loosened.
Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned is the oldest documented cocktail in the American canon and the drink from which the word cocktail derives its original meaning. Its first print definition, in 1806, as a stimulating liquor composed of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters, describes the Old Fashioned before the name existed. The name came in the 1880s, when bartenders began adding fruit and soda to the format and drinkers who preferred the original asked for their cocktail the old-fashioned way. Three ingredients in their purest form: whiskey, sugar, and bitters; the expressed orange peel and the ice are conditions of the serve rather than additions. The simplicity is the entire point. Built properly, with a quality bourbon or rye, it is one of the most satisfying drinks in the canon; built badly, one of the most disappointing. Rye versus bourbon is the most common argument and the least interesting one. Both are correct. Rye produces a drier, spicier result where the bitters are more prominent; bourbon a rounder, sweeter one where the vanilla and caramel of the grain lead. What is a matter of correctness: sugar fully dissolved, bitters measured rather than dashed freely, and the drink stirred rather than shaken.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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