The garnish for an Old Fashioned: dried orange, done properly
The short version: a dried orange slice and one large piece of ice. Optionally a cherry. Nothing else.
An Old Fashioned is three ingredients and a lot of restraint, and the garnish should behave the same way. It is the one drink where overdoing the finish is genuinely obvious.
Why orange, and why dried
Orange oil and bourbon belong together. The citrus lifts the vanilla and caramel in the spirit, which is why the classic finish is an orange twist expressed over the top.
A twist has one problem: it is spent in about a minute. You get the burst of oil, then a curl of peel sitting in the glass looking like an offcut, which is roughly what it is.
A dried orange slice works differently. It sits on the ice, holds its shape all the way down, and the concentrated citrus keeps giving you something on the nose with every sip rather than only the first. It also looks like the drink was made deliberately, which is the point of an Old Fashioned.
Our dried orange comes as an 8-slice pouch at $12, or 40g at $23. Stored in an airtight pouch in a dark cupboard, away from the kettle and the stove, they keep for months. Moisture is what ruins dried citrus, not time.
The ice matters more than people think
One large cube or sphere, not a handful of small ones. Small ice has more surface area, melts faster, and by the third sip you are drinking watered bourbon. A single large piece chills the drink and then largely leaves it alone.
Our Sphere Ice Tray is $22 and is the cheapest upgrade available to anyone who drinks whiskey at home. It also gives the orange slice something to sit on, rather than sinking.
What about the cherry
A proper dark cocktail cherry is fine, and traditional. A bright red glacé cherry is not: too sweet, wrong colour, and it turns a serious drink into something from a 1970s dessert trolley. If you do not have good cherries, leave it out. The orange is doing the work.
The recipe
Ingredients (per serve)
- 60ml bourbon or whiskey
- 10ml sugar syrup
- 2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- One large ice cube or sphere
- F N Lemons dried orange slice
Method
- Combine the whiskey, sugar syrup and bitters, and stir.
- Pour into a whiskey glass over one large ice cube and stir until chilled.
- Garnish with a dried orange slice.
Stir, do not shake. Shaking aerates the drink and clouds it, and an Old Fashioned should be clear.
If you want to vary it
Dried blood orange is the same idea with a darker, slightly more bitter edge, and it looks striking against bourbon. Dried lemon works if you are pouring rye rather than bourbon, where the spice suits a sharper citrus.
Everything we make is handcrafted in small batches here in the Waikato, using real fruit and natural ingredients. Browse the dried citrus range, with free shipping on orders over $100.