Old Fashioned
The IBA’s Old Fashioned is 45ml of bourbon or rye whiskey, one sugar cube, a few dashes of Angostura bitters and a few dashes of water; we use bourbon and two dashes. The sugar and bitters are muddled in a rocks glass until the cube dissolves, then ice goes in, the bourbon goes over it and the drink is stirred for 15 to 20 seconds. Orange peel is expressed over the top. About 1.9 UK units. Only the sugar and bitters are muddled: no orange flesh, no cherry. The recipe predates the name. The Oxford Companion says that when a newspaper in Hudson, New York, defined the cocktail in 1806, it described “spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters”. The name came later in the century: the Companion has people ordering Old-Fashioneds in Chicago in 1880, as bartenders added liqueurs to the format and drinkers who wanted it plain asked for one made the old-fashioned way.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange peel
Ingredients
45ml
Bourbon at 40% ABV or slightly stronger. Its vanilla and caramel make a rounder drink; rye, which the IBA allows, makes a drier, spicier one where the bitters show more.
1 cube
White or demerara. Soaked in the bitters and muddled with water until no grains remain; an undissolved cube leaves the bottom of the glass sweeter than the top.
2 dashes
Two dashes, at 44.7% ABV, onto the cube before muddling. The IBA says a few; beyond two, the bitters start fighting the bourbon instead of seasoning it.
Few dashes
A few dashes on the soaked cube. It starts the sugar dissolving before the bourbon arrives, which a cube needs in a drink this cold and short.
Instructions
Place the sugar cube in a rocks glass and soak it with two dashes of Angostura bitters.
Add a few dashes of water and muddle until the sugar has fully dissolved.
Add one large ice cube, or fill the glass with large cubes.
Pour in the bourbon.
Stir for 15 to 20 seconds, until cold and lightly diluted.
Express a wide strip of orange peel over the drink and rest it on the rim or drop it in.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA ingredients, with two dashes for the IBA’s few and no cherry; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Dissolve the sugar before any whiskey goes in. Soak the cube in the bitters, add a few dashes of water and muddle until no grains are left. Cold bourbon will not finish the job, and an undissolved cube leaves the last mouthfuls syrupy. Two dashes of Angostura is the measure. The IBA says a few; past two, the bitters stop seasoning the bourbon and start competing with it. Use one large cube, or large cubes filling the glass. The drink is sipped slowly, and small ice keeps melting until the bottom third tastes of water. Stir for 15 to 20 seconds, then express the orange peel so its oil lands on the surface before the first sip.
Behind the Old Fashioned
Flavour Profile
The Origin
As the Oxford Companion reports, on 13 May 1806 the Balance and Columbian Repository, a newspaper in Hudson, New York, defined the cocktail as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters”.
That is an Old Fashioned in all but name. The Oxford Companion has people ordering Old-Fashioneds in Chicago in 1880. In the 1850s and 1860s, the Companion says, bartenders began adding splashes of curaçao, maraschino and other liqueurs, and drinkers who wanted the plain version began to ask for an old-fashioned cocktail. Proulx’s manual, which we read in the Internet Archive scan, makes its Old-fashioned Cocktail with bitters, syrup, absinthe and lemon peel, stirred and strained, so the form was not yet fixed. We have found no source that names who first used the phrase.
The Sugar Question
The cube is the IBA’s form. Soaked in bitters, wetted with a few dashes of water and muddled, it dissolves into a thin, aromatic syrup at the bottom of the glass before any whiskey arrives. Sugar syrup skips that step and dissolves at once, which is why many bars use it.
Both make a sound drink. What does not work is a cube left half dissolved: cold bourbon will not finish the job, so the grains sit at the bottom and the last mouthfuls turn sweet.
What Each Part Does
Old Fashioned: what each ingredient does
Bourbon or rye
- Measure
- 45ml
- Its job
- The body and nearly all the flavour
Sugar cube
- Measure
- One
- Its job
- Rounds the spirit and carries the bitters
Angostura bitters
- Measure
- Two dashes
- Its job
- Clove, bitter herbs and a dry finish
Water
- Measure
- A few dashes
- Its job
- Starts the sugar dissolving
Orange peel
- Measure
- One wide strip
- Its job
- Oil on the surface, aroma before the first sip
| Ingredient | Measure | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| Bourbon or rye | 45ml | The body and nearly all the flavour |
| Sugar cube | One | Rounds the spirit and carries the bitters |
| Angostura bitters | Two dashes | Clove, bitter herbs and a dry finish |
| Water | A few dashes | Starts the sugar dissolving |
| Orange peel | One wide strip | Oil on the surface, aroma before the first sip |
Bitters as Seasoning
In our experience two dashes of Angostura, which Angostura’s own page describes as having a bouquet of herbs, fruits and spices, tie the bourbon to the sugar and add clove and bitter herbs that neither has alone. Past two dashes the bitterness starts to compete with the whiskey, and the drink loses its clarity.
The Fruit Question
The Oxford Companion says that by the late 1940s the drink was often oversweetened and made flaccid with a muddled orange wheel and the smashed remains of a processed maraschino cherry, a practice some trace to Prohibition and bad booze. In our experience fruit in the glass makes a sweeter, juicier drink, closer to a punch.
Here only the sugar and bitters are muddled. The orange arrives as peel, twisted over the surface so its oil sits on top, and no juice goes in. The IBA garnish adds a cocktail cherry; leave it off and the finish stays dry.
How to Serve It
Built in a rocks glass over one large cube or large cubes, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds, with orange peel expressed over the top and rested on the rim. It is a slow drink, and large ice keeps the dilution in step with the pace.
For the same sugar-and-bitters build on cognac, with Peychaud’s bitters and an absinthe rinse, try the Sazerac.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)Under the US standard 27 CFR 5.143, bourbon is an American whiskey whose mash is at least 51% corn, matured in fresh charred oak barrels and bottled at 40% ABV or higher, the figure our recipes use. The fresh charred wood gives it its vanilla, caramel and colour, and the corn gives a rounder, sweeter spirit than rye. It is the base of 26 of our recipes, more than any other whiskey.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in an Old Fashioned?
Where does the name come from?
Sugar cube or sugar syrup?
Should I muddle orange and cherry into it?
Bourbon or rye?
How strong is an Old Fashioned?
What ice should I use?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- IBA, “Old Fashioned” (official specification: 45 ml bourbon or rye whiskey, 1 sugar cube, few dashes Angostura bitters, few dashes plain water; muddle the sugar cube saturated with bitters and water until dissolved, fill with ice cubes, add whiskey, stir gently; garnish orange slice or zest and a cocktail cherry).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Robert Hess and David Wondrich), “The Old-Fashioned Cocktail” (secondary source: the 1806 definition of a cocktail; the 1850s and 1860s liqueurs; Old-Fashioneds ordered in Chicago in 1880; the muddled orange wheel and cherry by the late 1940s).
- Theodore Proulx (1888), Internet Archive, “Bartender’s Manual” (primary source: Old-fashioned Cocktail: half a lump of sugar dissolved with water in a bar glass, the water poured out, a little bitters, syrup and absinthe, lemon peel, two or three pieces of ice, a jigger of whisky, stirred and strained).
- Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, “27 CFR 5.143 Standards of identity for whisky” (primary source: bourbon whisky is made from a fermented mash of not less than 51% corn).
- Angostura, “Aromatic Bitters” (maker’s own page: “Aromatic taste with a bouquet of fruits, spices and herbs”).
- DrinkSupermarket, “Angostura Aromatic Bitters 20cl” (UK retailer listing, a secondary source: 44.7% ABV).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “Cock-Tail” (secondary source: the first unambiguous appearance of the formula and name together, in Hudson, New York, in 1806: “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters”).
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Sazerac
The IBA’s Sazerac is 50ml of cognac stirred with a sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, then strained, with no ice, into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and finished with lemon zest. About 2.1 UK units. New Orleans more often makes it with rye whiskey. The Sazerac Company’s own history places Aaron Bird at the Sazerac House beside the Merchants Exchange from 1852 and dates the switch to rye to 1885. The Oxford Companion says the Sazerac cocktail was first mentioned in print only in 1899, and that the company’s account, which follows the historian Stanley Clisby Arthur, is undercut by numerous errors. The absinthe never goes into the mixing glass. It coats the glass and is poured away, leaving anise on the nose of every sip.
Manhattan
The IBA specifies 50ml of rye whiskey, 20ml of sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters, strained into a chilled glass with a cocktail cherry; we stir it over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and serve it in a coupe. That is five parts whiskey to two of vermouth. About 2.3 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the most commonly told story puts it at New York’s Manhattan Club on 29 December 1874, at a testimonial dinner for Samuel J. Tilden, later retold with Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill, as host or inspiration, and calls that story simply not true: she had given birth to Winston Churchill in Oxfordshire less than a month earlier. The Companion names O. H. Byron’s Modern Bartenders’ Guide among the bar books that printed the drink in 1884, and we read Byron’s and Charlie Paul’s books of that year in the Internet Archive scans. With so little in the glass, the vermouth decides it. Twenty millilitres is over a quarter of the drink, and a bottle opened months ago tastes flat and sour against the rye. We keep it in the fridge and replace it within about four weeks.
Boulevardier
A Boulevardier is 45ml bourbon, 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with orange peel. It is the bourbon Negroni: the same Campari and vermouth with bourbon in place of gin, and that one change makes it warmer and rounder. About 3.0 UK units. It first appeared in print in Barflies and Cocktails, Harry MacElhone’s book, published in Paris in 1927, in a chapter by the columnist Arthur Moss, as the cocktail of Erskine Gwynne, an American in Paris who, Difford’s Guide says, helped found a monthly magazine called Boulevardier. Barflies and Cocktails gives the 1927 recipe as equal parts Campari, Italian vermouth and bourbon. The measures here are the IBA’s, with the bourbon ahead of the other two. Equal parts works well with a lighter vermouth. Against a rich one such as Carpano Antica Formula, the extra 15ml of bourbon keeps the drink from turning heavy.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026