How to Make a Better Old-Fashioned

We’re strong proponents of having a good home bar. Welcome to Cocktail Hour, where we’ll show you the best ways to put your liquor cabinet to use. This cocktail is brought to you by thebar.com.

Today: Stay in tonight. Fix yourself this drink. 

It’s one of life’s great myths that Friday evenings are about pomp and revelry. They are not. Friday evenings are about climbing into really soft pants and eating dinner before 9 and falling asleep before 11. As much as we want to paint the town red, we are tired. Sensibility wins. 

So we look to pragmatic cocktails at the end of a long week. We want to drink something that asks nothing of us, least of all not to spill it or to garnish it with a procession of mint. Save the skittish martinis and top-heavy glassware and raucous tiki cocktails for a well-rested Saturday -- today you'll drink a Maple Old-Fashioned in a sturdy, high-walled rocks glass, and you will feel safe. 

This is a drink that allows the laziness of fixing a finger of whiskey, neat, but makes you feel like you’re keeping up with all of the celebration happening outside your window. It’s both low-key and a little new, much like the Friday night of your dreams. 

Combine Canadian whisky with maple simple syrup (like a rich simple syrup where the sugar is maple) and a dash of bitters, and stir for a solid ten seconds. Strain over fresh ice. (As much fun as it is to build your old-fashioned in the glass, it also waters it down in a way you can’t really control. Take a page out of bartenders’ books and let this irritate you -- your drink will be better for it.) 

You’ll end up with a cocktail about as harmonious as a Canadian tuxedo, a little earthy from the maple and a lot warming from the liquor. And if I have to guess, you’ll do it all again next Friday. 

Maple Old-FashionedRecipe from The Bar Book

Serves 1 

1 1/2 
ounces Crown Royal Canadian whisky
1
 barspoon 2:1 maple simple syrup (see note in recipe)
1 to 2
 dashes Fee Brothers bitters, or other aromatic bitters
Lemon peel for garnish

See the full recipe (and save it and print it) here. 

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