The last time we blind-tasted Old-Fashioneds, back in 2018, the cocktail had found itself caught between two versions. There were those made with a muddled, bitters-soaked sugar cube—what might be deemed the more old-fashioned Old-Fashioned—and those made with a sugar syrup, be it simple or Demerara, as the sweetener. (The muddled fruit of the disco Old-Fashioned had long since been dispatched.) Both versions have precedent in the pre-Prohibition era, but the latter, decidedly less theatrical but ultimately more consistent—as no sugar granules are left unincorporated at the bottom of the glass—has, in the past six years, become the streamlined standard-bearer of the modern era.
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