The Old Fashioned: Learning Project Week 3

The Old Fashioned dates back to the 1800’s. Its one of the oldest cocktails in our history, so old that it gets its name from people asking for “one of those good-old fashioned cocktails you used to make” when like martini’s and cosmopolitans where becoming popular. Its name literally come from the fact that its such an old recipe. Where I work its something of a right of passage for new bartenders to make a perfect Old Fashioned. Now through history every recipe has been through thousands of changes, tweaks, additions, and remixes, but the constants in the Old Fashioned have always been bourbon, sugar, and bitters. The cocktail is made to be spirit forward, as in a cocktail that aims to put the spirit of the drink front and center to enjoy its taste. Where I work, our recipe is as follows:

In a mixing glass add:

2 oz Bourbon (We use Woodford Reserve

a splash of Simple Syrup

2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Add ice and stir

Strain and pour over a block of ice

Twist an orange peel, an add a maraschino cherry as garnish

Serve

Bourbon is a type of whisky distilled in America. Its mainly made from corn, making it one of the sweeter types of whiskies out there. Simple syrup is a common and easy to make ingredient used in plenty of cocktails, just 1:1 sugar dissolved in water to make a syrup. The simple syrup and the angostura bitters work together to really bring  out the sweetness of the bourbon, enhancing the flavor. This makes up the classic cocktail. No matter what Old Fashioned you order these ingredients will always be present if its remaining faithful to the original recipe. The rest are just additions to add a bit more to it.

The twisting of an orange peel releases a spray of oils on top of the cocktail. This, if anything, only serves to enhance the smell of the cocktail. However, with such a simple drink changing the smell just a bit creates a better overall experience, that sense of orange bleeds into the flavors. The maraschino cherry also serves to add a bit of flavor too it. Finally if requested, we smoke the cocktail with hickory woodchips. That gives the whole cocktail this delicious smoky hint to it that’s common to find in a more expensive whisky.

Making the cocktail there are a few interesting things to note. For instance, this is one cocktail I was warned always to stir. When mixing a cocktail, we typically stir a cocktail that we want to remain thick and smooth, something we want to keep the same consistency as its base spirit. Furthermore, we use a block of ice in this cocktail rather than many ice cubes. This is because a block of ice melts much much slower than multiply small cubes would, allowing someone to sip their cocktail much, much longer. These aspects of the drink also often stay the same through every iteration of the cocktail.

I figured the best way to show my understanding of the cocktail was to show myself making it at work.

When recording this video, my coworker did it with the phone in portrait mode. That made it a bit hard to edit the video in things like Canva or iMovie, which I’m familiar with. So, for the first time, I tried making a video on TikTok. I have had the app for a while on my phone but I had never posted, just scrolled. I figured, why not try it out. I was shocked to find out how easy it was!

Everything was well labeled with easily shown options. It makes everything from adding text and transitions to adding music easy and accessible. Now, I still haven’t posted the video and I will likely leave it in the drafts, but user interaction on these posts seem quite easy to manage if you choose to.  I then uploaded the edited video to YouTube, since I knew it linked easily into blog posts. For what its worth, I think that editing built into TikTok is really easy to use. It could be useful in the classroom as well, as a convenient way for students to record and edit projects, as well as a way for teachers to edit instructional videos for their classes. I had always wondered how TikTok became such a popular place to make content seemingly out of no where a few years ago. Making this short video, I get it. Everything was quick and easy to learn and make for such a basic video. If you want, it’ll even create an edit for you. Unfortunately for that part though, it seems hard to find one to fit a theme or vibe your going for, as you’ll see in this example below.