Name: Old Fashioned Cocktail (muddled fruit version)
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 2 whole Maraschino cherry; 1&frasl;2 slice Orange (fresh); 1&frasl;2 slice Lemon (fresh); 75 ml Bourbon whiskey; 7.5 ml Maraschino syrup; 7.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 dash Aromatic bitters

Old Fashioned Cocktail (muddled fruit version)
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Old Fashioned Cocktail (muddled fruit version) image

Serve in an Old-fashioned glass

Ingredients:
2 whole	Maraschino cherry (from jar in syrup)
¹⁄₂ slice	Orange (fresh) cut into segments
¹⁄₂ slice	Lemon (fresh) cut into segments
2 ¹⁄₂ oz	Bourbon whiskey
¹⁄₄ oz	Syrup from Luxardo Maraschino Cherries
¹⁄₄ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
2 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Garnish: Orange zest twist & Luxardo Maraschino Cherry

How to make:

MUDDLE orange and cherries in base of shaker. Add other ingredients, SHAKE with ice and fine strain into ice-filled glass.

Review:

This drink is often mixed in the glass in which it is to be served. Shaking better incorporates the flavours produced by muddling and fine straining removes the orange peel and cherry skin.

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History:

Orange and lemon segments, and sometimes even a maraschino cherry, are sometimes muddled when making an Old Fashioned. The practise probably originated during Prohibition as a means of disguising rough spirits. This practice is almost unknown outside North America.

In the Foreword to his 1945 Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion, Lucus Beebe recants the reaction of a bartender at Chicago's Drake Hotel when ordering "an Old Fashioned without fruit except for lemon." "Yong impudent sir", he screamed, "my hair is hoary–with eld," he added as an afterthought. "Man and boy I've built Old Fashioned cocktails these sixty years. Yes, sir, since the first Armour was pushing a wheelbarrow in a slaughterhouse, and I have never yet had the perverted nastiness of mind to put fruit in an Old Fashioned."
Old-Fashioned cocktail history

More Classic/vintage cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Clarence Castillo

20th June at 01:47

Ah yes, the "muddled fruit" vs. I guess, "minimalist" Old Fashioned debate. Aside from Mr. Difford here, I learned about the most about cocktails from the legendary Dale DeGroff and the OG cocktail historian Ted Haigh. Haigh refers to the muddled fruit version as a "ugly slurry". Yet no less of an authority than DeGroff is apparently on Team Ugly Slurry. DeGroff, in the first edition of Craft of the Cocktail: "Those other guys just want some sweetened whiskey, not an Old Fashioned." It's summer here in Cali, and I just a muddled fruit Old Fashioned with blackberries, an orange slice, and some beautiful farmer's market apricots. So let's split the difference! When all those things are in season, muddled fruit is the way to go. Once the chill of winter comes in, I'm sipping on some sweetened Bourbon. (Of course, it's not just sweetened Bourbon, it's sweetened Bourbon plus Angostura bitters and an orange twist.

Sharon Kulvinskas

29th March 2024 at 17:47

This is delicious, I use Angel's Envy Finished Rye because I like it just a tad bit less sweet. I made this for friends and they loved it.

Grenik .

11th January 2023 at 02:39

I make them muddled for guests that do not like straight bourbon. I gently muddle a cherry in the serving glass, add syrup, bitters and stir. Add a shot of bourbon and ice, stir. I may stop here and serve if they do not want it too strong. Otherwise I had a half shot or so of rye whiskey (or more bourbon). Orange peel squeezed and then rubbed on the rim. Garnish with the orange peel and another cherry. I only muddle orange when requested, and then I prepare outside of the serving glass.

Ignacy Szczupal

10th January 2023 at 23:47

Over 20 years ago, I drank my first Muddled fruit Old Fashioned after telling the bartender at a bar in San Francisco, CA where I happened to land that I don't like Old Fashioned when he told me it was his specilate. I found the Muddled Fruit version delicious. And the recipe above is enviously better than the one I remember.