Hong Kong bars breathe fresh life into the old-fashioned cocktail
Rum has overtaken rye whiskey as the most popular ingredient in this classic drink, but the city’s barmen are happy to add their twist to almost any spirit
What is classic to some tastes is old fashioned to others. The old-fashioned cocktail, however, is definitely both.
The old-fashioned whiskey cocktail, as it was then called, is recorded as a well-established drink as early as 1895, when a recipe for it was included in George Kappeler’s book Modern American Drinks.
It was probably already a century or more old by then – in fact, it may have been the original cocktail going by that name.
SEE ALSO: Where to find Hong Kong’s best Bloody Marys on the 94th birthday of the morning after classic
The earliest definition of a cocktail so far identified appeared in 1806 in an edition of a Hudson New York publication called The Balance, and Columbian repository.
“A cock-tail,” the editor explained in response to a curious reader’s inquiry, “is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters”.
Substitute ice for the water and add a twist of lemon, and essentially you have an old-fashioned – the drink which gave the glass its name.
American rye whiskey or bourbon seem to have become the standard spirits of choice for the old-fashioned in the course of the 19th century and throughout the 20th, but in the 21st century bartenders looking to reinvigorate the classics have found the elegant simplicity of the recipe fertile ground for the expression of their own individuality.