When asked what men were drinking at the time, he responded, “The Old-Fashioned cocktails still in vogue cocktails made of loaf-sugar and whiskey…rye whiskey called for more than bourbon.” Two years later, it was referenced by a local bartender in the same publication. In his book Imbibe, drinks historian David Wondrich writes that the Old Fashioned style of cocktail was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune in 1880.
The spoon was often left in the glass to mix any residual sugar. In The Old-Fashioned, author and historian Robert Simonson writes that the iconic drink evolved from the Whiskey Cocktail, which was composed of the same ingredients and supposedly served as early as 1800.īy the late 19th century, an “Old-Fashioned” cocktail was its own category-a nostalgic style of drink that comprised a base spirit of either whiskey, brandy, or gin, and included some lump sugar, bitters, and cracked ice, mixed together with a quick stir. The Old Fashioned, a simple combination of whiskey, sugar, aromatic bitters, and ice, can be traced back to the beginnings of cocktail creation.
