Barrett's Mixology: Old Fashioned

By Nan W. Johnson ‘64 | Sunday, June 8, 2008

2 oz bourbon whiskey
2 dashes Angostura® bitters
1 splash water
1 tsp sugar
1 piece lemon-peel

Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey-glass; add two dashes Angostura bitters, a small piece of ice, a piece lemon-peel, one jigger whiskey. Mix with small bar-spoon and serve, leaving spoon in glass.

Staring out across the fields while sitting on the wide platform of the main house’s wrap-around porch, it suddenly hit me: fall had fallen. The leaves of the Oaks covering my property had almost completely changed from lush shades of green to striking ochers and ambers—the type of colors one so readily associates with the fall season—and thus, the fruity concoction I held in my hand (my wife had a habit of mixing up large sugary pitchers of these types of drink on warm summer days) would simply not do. In a quick flick-of-the-wrist I flung the remaining contents of my cup into the yard and headed inside to scour the liquor cabinet for a more suitable libation. No sooner had my eyes drifted across the label of a good bottle of bourbon, I knew of only one cocktail that could possibly suffice.

I had first been introduced to the drink while visiting an old college chum in Louisville, Kentucky. He had taken me to the ever exclusive Pendennis Club, instructing me to let the bartender make me an “Old-Fashioned.” Acquiescing, I watched as the barkeep adroitly mixed the ingredients in a rocks glass, garnished with a lemon peel, and slid the drink gingerly into my awaiting hands. The self-assured look on his face told me I was going to enjoy it. And the man’s face didn’t lie; the drink was the perfect balance of sweet and bitter, mellow yet biting.

So now I stood at my own bar, trying my best to recreate the very same cocktail. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t get it right, even down to the spoon. I returned to my seat on the porch, Old-Fashioned in hand, to enjoy the last hour of daylight while watching my newest mare acquaint herself with the boundaries of her stable. I couldn’t help but notice the last rays of sunlight filtering through the tawny liquid in my glass, so perfectly reflecting the leaves that were just beginning to fall on the yard.

Barrett's Mixology: Old Fashioned

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