Bourbon Old Fashioned

All that's really in a Bourbon Old Fashioned is a small amount of sweetened whisky and some salt. Although some perceive it only as a means of disguising inexpensive whisky, it's a fantastic beverage on its own. It is, in fact, among the most traditional drinks still in vogue. The idea of this cocktail goes back all the way to 1806. At the time, the Whiskey Cocktail was a very popular morning drink: a cure for headaches, nausea, and other symptoms of a hangover. Today we’d call this “hair of the dog that bit you,” but at the time it was considered a sophisticated way for alcoholics to manage life and remain functional. To make it, bartenders would just throw some sugar, bitters, and ice into whiskey, and it was so popular that every bartender had their own version. The version closest to what we call an Old Fashioned today was made by James Pepper in 1880. He was a bartender at a private Kentucky social club, and when he moved to New York and went to work at the Waldorf-Astoria, he took his recipe with him. Naturally, anything being served at the Waldorf-Astoria was a hit, and this was the original Old Fashioned.

Since then, the drink has had its ups and downs. The zenith of its popularity came in 1880, when a despised New York politician by the name of Samuel Tilden withdrew from an election, prompting drunken celebrations that heavily favored the Old Fashioned, as well as hot whiskey.