The Old Standard
The Old Fashioned is the oldest documented cocktail format there is, and the most instructive template for understanding a base spirit. Spirit, sweetener, bitters: what is in the bottle has nowhere to hide. That is the reason to apply it to Expedition Spiced Rum rather than build something that would cover for it. Two departures from the whiskey version, and both follow from the rum. The sweetener is demerara syrup, which brings caramel and toffee depth where white sugar brings only sweetness, and that depth has something to attach to in a rum carrying vanilla, cassia and bourbon oak. The bitters are split: two dashes of Angostura reinforcing the clove and cinnamon already there, and a single dash of orange picking up the orange peel and lifting the nose in a way Angostura alone does not. The name is deliberate. Standards are not talked about at Jerry Can Spirits. They are lived.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange Peel
Ingredients
50ml
The foundation, and the reason every other ingredient was chosen. Seven real spices, two natural sweeteners and bourbon oak: a profile with enough depth to carry a format that hides nothing.
10ml
Two parts demerara sugar dissolved in one part warm water. Demerara is unrefined cane sugar, and the caramel and toffee it carries deepen the drink where white sugar would only sweeten it.
2 dashes
Reinforces the clove and cinnamon already in the rum. Two dashes is the correct measure; more and the bitters compete with the spice that is there rather than supporting it.
1 dash
A single dash approaching the rum's orange peel from a different angle, delivering a brighter aromatic at the nose than the macerated peel does in the body of the drink.
Instructions
Add the demerara syrup, Angostura bitters and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Stir briefly to combine the syrup and the bitters.
Add the Expedition Spiced Rum and a scoop of large cubed ice.
Stir for 20 to 25 seconds, until well chilled and properly diluted.
Strain over a single large cube or fresh cubed ice in a rocks glass.
Cut a wide strip of orange peel, express the oils over the surface, and rest the peel in the glass.
Expert Tip
Demerara syrup rather than a sugar cube removes the most common point of failure in any Old Fashioned, which is undissolved sugar sitting in the bottom of the glass. Make it two parts demerara to one part warm water and keep it in the fridge. If you want to understand what it is contributing beyond sweetness, stir the syrup and the bitters together and taste them before the rum goes in. The caramel and toffee are immediately obvious, and it explains why white sugar was never the right choice here. Two dashes of Angostura, not four. The rum already carries clove and cinnamon, and a heavy hand lays a second layer of the same spice on top rather than reinforcing what is there.
Behind the The Old Standard
Flavour Profile
The Name
The Old Standard takes its name from the discipline it applies: every ingredient chosen for a reason that traces back to what the rum already is, nothing added for convenience and nothing left out for speed. Expedition Spiced Rum is good enough. The Old Standard exists to demonstrate that.
The Format
The Old Fashioned's position as the original cocktail makes it the most instructive template there is for understanding a base spirit. No citrus, no liqueur, no soda, no second spirit to share the blame. Whatever the bottle is, the format reflects it back.
That is a demanding thing to do to a spiced rum, because a spiced rum is usually treated as a mixer: something with enough flavour to survive cola and enough sweetness to need no help. Put it in an Old Fashioned and it has to hold a glass on its own. Seven real spices, two natural sweeteners and bourbon oak is a profile with enough depth to manage it, and the drink is built on that confidence rather than on decoration.
The Demerara Decision
Demerara is an unrefined or partially refined cane sugar, named for the region of Guyana it originally came from, with a large crystal and a caramel-forward sweetness that white sugar does not have.
In a drink with three ingredients that difference is not a subtlety. White sugar contributes sweetness and nothing else. Demerara contributes toffee and a slight mineral edge, and against a rum carrying vanilla, cassia and bourbon oak those notes have something to attach to. The result reads as deeper rather than sweeter, which is the whole reason for the choice.
Make it two parts sugar to one part warm water. It keeps a fortnight in the fridge.
The Bitters Logic
The split between Angostura and orange bitters follows directly from the botanical profile.
Angostura's principal aromatics are gentian, clove, cinnamon and warm spice, and clove and cinnamon are already present in the rum. Two dashes reinforce what is there and supply the aromatic frame the format requires without introducing anything foreign to it. Four dashes stop reinforcing and start competing, which is the most common way this drink goes wrong.
The orange bitters approach the orange peel from the other direction. Macerated peel contributes a warm, integrated citrus note in the body of the drink; the bitters deliver a brighter, more volatile aromatic at the nose. Two kinds of orange, in two different places, are more layered than either alone.
How to Serve It
Stirred for twenty to twenty-five seconds, strained over a single large cube or fresh cubed ice in a rocks glass, with a wide strip of orange peel expressed over the surface and rested in the glass. No straw and no other garnish.
None of the details are complicated and all of them are deliberate. The syrup is made properly and stored properly, the bitters are measured rather than dashed freely, the stir is timed rather than guessed, and the peel is expressed rather than dropped in undressed. That is the difference between a drink that does the spirit justice and one that does not.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Jerry Can Spirits Expedition Spiced RumA spiced rum built for balance. Madagascan vanilla leads, with Ceylon cinnamon, ginger and cassia through the middle and bourbon oak on the finish. 40% ABV, designed to work neat, over ice, and across classic and modern cocktails.
Need the Rum?
Pick up a bottle of Expedition Spiced Rum to make this cocktail.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Old Standard?
How does it differ from a whiskey Old Fashioned?
Why demerara rather than white sugar?
Can I use a sugar cube instead?
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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.
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Recipe by Dan Freeman