Mad Men Old Fashioned
Mad Men Old Fashioned
Fans of the show will no doubt recognize what cocktail is required to pay proper homage and fully immerse oneself in the Mad Men experience. Protagonist Don Draper preferred an alpha male appropriate Old Fashioned, and the show writers did a good job placing the version he drinks in time with that era. The Old Fashioned has gone through many changes in the course of its long career as the grandfather of all cocktails, beginning way back in the late 1700s when whiskey was mixed with aromatic bitters and served up with no ice. Over time bartenders “improved” the whiskey cocktail with lemon twists and dashes of liqueur, so purists had to order what they wanted as an “old fashioned” whiskey cocktail. Time is all relative, and this would have been back in the mid 1800s. After Prohibition (and likely during, to mask the flavor of bootlegged whiskey), Old Fashioneds were served with muddled fruit, maraschino cherries, oranges, sometimes even pineapple, and topped off with soda water.
this will make you Mad
We see Don Draper make a period appropriate version in season 3, episode 3, My Old Kentucky Home. He jumps behind the empty bar and helps himself. Unable to find bourbon, he uses rye (an excellent but interesting choice for an episode named for Kentucky). Into the Old Fashioned heavy bottomed rocks glasses go the sugar cubes, followed by a healthy dose of Angostura bitters, a maraschino cherry and an orange wedge, which get muddled up with the sugar and bitters. The whiskey is stirred with lots of ice separately, then added to the glasses ice and all. It’s a perfectly executed drink, what would now be considered an old fashioned Old Fashioned (unless you live in Wisconsin). Thanks to the cocktail renaissance in the late nineties, the more original 1800s version has come back, sans muddled fruit, and with much better bourbon. Cheers!
Idiot proof pair
Mad Men Old Fashioned
2 oz rye
1-2 sugar cubes
orange wedge
maraschino cherry
Angostura bitters
ice
Place sugar cubes in a rocks glass and soak with bitters. Add orange and cherry and muddle. Separately stir whiskey with ice to chill in a mixing glass and pour everything into the rocks glass. Garnish with a crisply tailored suit and alpha male attitude.
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