Classic cocktails like the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, the Sazerac, and the Ward 8 were invented exclusively for Rye. The spiciness of rye was, unsurprisingly, an appropriately manly libation for any proper gentleman in the 1930s.
One of the most fascinating glimpses into the ethos of post-Prohibition ornery New Yorkers comes from a New Years’ Day 1936 letter to the editor of the New York Times, in which “Old Timer” describes the perfect Old Fashioned. We salute you, good sir, for your honest and refreshing cantankerousness.
“Time was when the affable and sympathetic bartender moistened a lump of sugar with Angostura bitters, dropped in a lump of ice, neither too large nor too small, stuck in a miniature bar spoon and passed the glass to the client with a bottle of good bourbon from which said client was privileged to pour his own drink. In most places the price was 15 cents or two for quarter.
Nowadays the modern or ex-speakeasy bartender drops a spoonful of powdered sugar into a glass, adds a squirt of carbonic to aid dissolution, adds to that a dash or two of some kind of alleged bitters and a lump of ice, regardless of size. Then he proceeds to build up a fruit compote of orange, lemon, pineapple and cherry, and himself pours in a carefully measured ounce and a half of bar whisky, usually a blend, and gives one a glass rod to stir it with. Price, 35 to 50 cents. Profanation and extortion.”
WhistlePig Old Fashioned
2 oz WhistlePig Rye Whiskey
1/4 oz Simple Syrup
4 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir all ingredients. Strain and serve in a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with orange twist.
