Classic Cocktails: Old-Fashioned

Colonel James E. Pepper, a Kentucky-based distiller of bourbon, and the bartender of the Pendennis Club, Louisville, were jointly responsible for the creation of this cocktail around 1900, and it soon became a fixture from New York to Waikiki. Once referred to as a "palate-paralyzer," the Old Fashioned is a cocktail with a song in its honor, "Make it Another Old-Fashioned, Please" by Cole Porter.

Often heavily garnished, you may think that you fruit was a more recent addition, however it is found in the ealiest recipes. Only the cherry was added later, when technology made possible the mass production of maraschino cherries in the 1920s.

Old-Fashioned

-1 sugar cube
-2 dashes Angostura bitters
-Club soda
-1 1/2 oz. bourcon (rye or blended whiskey may be used instead)
-1 slice orange peel
-1 slice lemon peel
-1 slice pineapple
-1 cherry

Place sugar cube in an old-fashioned glass and soak with bitters. Add just enough club soda to cover the sugar, then muddle until the cube is completely dissolved. Add cracked ice, bourbon, orange and lemon peels, pineapple and cherry. Finish with a splash of club soda and serve with a swizzle stick.

Some variations of this drink include a dash or two of curacao.