No, no. It’s not the sequel to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Though, I suppose it could be.
What is a cocktail? It could be many things. But one of the older definitions is a drink containing spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. Something we now generally refer to as an Old Fashioned (digression on this point below). That’s it!
This combination of ingredients can make for many a delicious drink and needs little else.
Today, we generally think of an old fashioned as being a bourbon-based cocktail, but it does not have to be! Vodka, gin, mezcal, brandy (if you’re from Wisconsin) or really any spirit of your choosing can serve as the base for this simple recipe.
And it doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated. Many have dressed up the old fashioned in all sorts of fun ways. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan of fancy for fanciness sake. Remember: spirit, sugar, water, bitters.
The need for spirit should be obvious — I am a big fan of mocktails, but I’ll save that discussion for later. The point here is to get some booze and dress it up a little bit. We live in a time where that’s not often necessary and it’s easy to enjoy the spirit on its own. But for the purposes of a cocktail, we need a bit more.
Sugar does a nice job of offsetting the heat of the spirit. A little sweetness rounds out how the drink feels on the tongue. It makes the medicine go down, as it were. And it serves to dilute the drink without making it thinner. Sometimes, you want it a little thinner, and that’s where we get into…
Adding some water goes a long way as well. Especially with intense spirits like whiskies, a little water can lengthen the cocktail and bring out whole new flavors. A dash of water means you have more beverage to drink. And by moderating the heat of the spirit, new flavors that were masked underneath the alcohol can shine through even better.
That special form of H2O known as ice can help us even more. As a resident of a subtropical climate, there are few things I appreciate more than an ice cold cocktail. Frozen water is what lets that happen. To me, an old fashioned on the rocks is one of those fundamental pleasures that makes life worth living.
Lastly, we add some bitters. What are bitters all about you say? Bitters will deserve many a blog post of their own in the future, but for now, it’s all in the name. A little kick on the finish helps brings it all together. Bitters add the often ephemeral structure to a drink, while adding little hints of their own often intense flavors of spice, citrus, or what-have-you. A few dashes of bitters really ties the drink together.
And there we have it. The basic cocktail. The place where it all started. So make yourself an old fashioned, or if you’re able to, get your favorite bartender to make one for you. And enjoy your weekend.