13 Different Recipes to Make an Old Fashioned

Is there are thing that makes you more of a man than to come home after a hard working day and pour yourself a strong one? Probably not! And even if there was, that doesn’t change the fact that for that short moment you feel like you deserve to enjoy the moment. To make that moment last, we suggest you mix an Old Fashioned. Why? Because it’s the perfect cocktail to celebrate your daily accomplishments. In this post we prepared 13 different recipes to make an Old Fashioned, from the classic recipe to sweet and sour and all the way to fruity tastes… so you can put them to the test and find your own Old Fashioned favorite.

Read our post ‘How to Make Classic Whiskey Cocktails’.

1. Classic Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz Bourbon or Rye whiskey
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 Sugar cube
Few dashes plain water

Preparation:
Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters, add a dash of plain water. Muddle until dissolved. Fill the glass with ice cubes and add whiskey. Garnish with orange slice, and a cocktail cherry.

Served:
On the rocks; poured over ice

Standard garnish:
Orange slice, Cocktail cherry

Drinkware:
Old Fashioned glass

2. Classic Old Fashioned with Soda

Ingredients:
2 oz bourbon whiskey
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 splash mineral water
1 tsp sugar
1 maraschino cherry
1 orange wedge

Preparation:
Mix sugar, mineral water and angostura bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Drop in a cherry and an orange wedge. Muddle into a paste using a muddler or the back end of a spoon. Pour in bourbon, fill with ice cubes, and stir.

3. Old Fashioned with 7-Up

Ingredients:
6 drops Angostura bitters
1 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey
6 oz 7-Up soda
1/2 oz lemon juice

Preparation:
Pour bourbon over ice cubes in an old-fashioned glass. Add the bitters, soda and juice. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a lemon twist.

4. Brandy Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
1 oz brandy
1 tsp sugar
5 drops bitters
2 oz 7-Up soda
1 splash grenadine syrup

Preparation:
Add drops of bitters to bottom of glass and stir in sugar. Once bitters and sugar are combined, add ice and pour in brandy. Top off with 7-up/Sprite and add a splash of grenadine. Serve with cherry/orange slice. Also works with whiskey.

5. Butter Rum Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups vanilla ice cream
2 ounces rum
2 dashes water
1 sprinkle nutmeg

Preparation:
1. Combine sugar, brown sugar and butter in a 2-quart saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted (6-8 min).
2. Combine cooked mixture with ice-cream in a large mixing bowl, and beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until smooth (1-2 min). Store refrigerated up to 2 weeks or frozen up to one month.
3. For each serving, fill one-quarter of a mug with mixture, add one ounce rum and three-quarters of a cup of boiling water. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

6. Manhattan Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
1 oz whiskey
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
3 dashes bitters
1 tsp sugar
1 splash club soda

Preparation:
Pour the whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters and sugar into a cocktail glass over crushed ice. Stir well. Top with club soda, and stir again gently. Garnish with a maraschino cherry, and serve.

7. Raspberry Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
16 oz frozen unsweetned raspberries1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbspfresh lemon juice
2 tbsp orange juice
12 ounces vanilla ice cream
12 cups club soda
2 ounces rye whiskey

Preparation:
Combine raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and Triple Sec in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes, or until raspberries are defrosted and sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Process raspberry mixture in food processor or blender until smooth. Strain through fine-mesh sieve into 4-cup measure. Discard seeds.

Place 2 tablespoons raspberry mixture and 1 scoop ice cream in 12-ounce glass. Add 1 cup carbonated water. Repeat with remaining mixture, ice cream and carbonated water.

Strawberry Soda:
Follow recipe, except substitute 1 (16 ounce) package frozen unsweetened strawberries for raspberries.

Black Raspberry Soda:
Follow recipe, except substitute 1 (10 ounce) package frozen unsweetened black raspberries for raspberries.

Microwave tip:
Combine raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and Triple Sec in 2-quart casserole. Cover. Microwave at HIGH for 5 to 7 minutes, or until raspberries are defrosted and sugar is dissolved, stirring once. Continue as directed.

Combine & stir:
Combine whiskey, simple syrup mixture, and ice in tumbler and mix to chilled. Garnish with an orange peel.

8. Sweet & Sour Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz whiskey
5 oz sweet and sour mix
1 tbsp cherry juice
2 squirts bitters

Preparation:
Mix whiskey, bitters, and cherry juice in a ice-filled cocktail glass, and fill the remainder of the glass with sour mix. Garnish with olives or mushrooms and use a stir stick to mix.

9. New Orleans Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
2 oz Phillips Union blended whiskey
1 dash Peychaud’s bitters
1 splash soda

Preparation:
Stir ingredients together with ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge and drop in a maraschino cherry before serving.

10. Chai Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
Bourbon of any brand you like
1 infusing sachet (fancy talk for spice bag)
3 tablespoons Chai tea
1 orange
2 teaspoons of honey
Orange bitters or regular Angostura bitters
club soda (optional)

Chai Bourbon infusion:
1. Pour some bourbon in a jug or jar, fill the spice bag with chai tea and dunk it in (if the tea comes in a tea bag, just use that instead). If you’re using quite a lot of booze make sure to add more tea. Mind you, you don’t have to use the whole bottle of bourbon, just use as much as needed (you’ll need 2 oz per cocktail). Let it steep for about two hours. Don’t let it soak for too long (say, a day or so) or it’ll taste waaay too chai-y
2. Once you’re happy with the taste of the infusion. Discard the spice bag and get ready to shake.

To make 1 cocktail:
In a shaker with ice pour 2 oz of chai infused bourbon, 2 teaspoons of honey, a nice piece of orange rind, 3 dashes of bitters, and shake it all up! (shake it well to release the orange scent and to dissolve the honey).Pour over an old fashioned glass with ice. Top with a bit of club soda (you can skip this step if you like it strong). Garnish with a star anise and a piece of orange rind.

11. Apple Jack Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
2 ounces quality apple cider or juice
Dash of angostura bitters
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey
Orange slice, for garnish
Apple slice, for garnish
Ice, for serving

Instructions:
In a lowball glass, combine the apple juice, bitters, and sugar. Swirl glass around until mixture is combined and sugar is dissolved. Add the ice and whiskey. Top with orange and apple slices.

12. Sage Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

Sage simple syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ounce (weight) fresh sage, about 15 to 20 leaves

Blackberry sage Old Fashioned:
6 blackberries
3/4 ounce sage simple syrup
3 dashes Peychaud bitters
1 1/2 ounces quality bourbon
Cracked ice
Fresh sage leaf and blackberry for garnish

Preparation:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine water and sugar; stir. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and add sage. Allow the sage to steep in the syrup for at least 30 minutes until infused. Remove sage and allow to cool. Sage syrup can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

In an old fashioned glass, muddle blackberries. Add sage simple syrup, bitters, and bourbon; stir.
Add cracked ice to within 1 inch of rim. Garnish with a sage leaf and blackberry. Serve.

13. Campari Old Fashioned

Ingredients:
One 2-inch-long strip of lemon zest
1 teaspoon Demerara simple syrup (see Note)
1 teaspoon Campari
3 dashes of grapefruit bitters
Scant pinch of fine sea salt
2 ounces gin, preferably Knickerbocker or Beefeater 24
Ice

Preparation:
In a rocks glass, muddle the lemon zest with the simple syrup, Campari, grapefruit bitters and sea salt. Add the gin and a few ice cubes and stir until well chilled. Top with more ice and serve right away.

To make Demerara simple syrup, in a small saucepan, dissolve 1/4 cup Demerara sugar (a coarse, raw cane sugar) in 1/4 cup water over moderate heat.