Bar-Quality Old Fashioned with Demerara Syrup

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The cocktail that made whiskey bars famous, stripped back to what actually matters: good bourbon or rye, a rich demerara syrup you stir together in five minutes, two kinds of bitters for depth, and a slow stir over one big cube so the drink dilutes without going watery. The orange peel gets expressed over the surface, not muddled into the glass — that one move is the difference between a home pour and a proper bar pour.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup demerara or turbinado sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 strip orange peel, optional

• 4 oz bourbon or rye whiskey, 95–100 proof preferred
• 1 tsp demerara syrup, from above (about 1/2 tsp per drink, to taste)
• 4 dashes Angostura aromatic bitters
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 2 large clear ice cubes, 2-inch, plus cracked ice for stirring
• 2 wide strips orange peel, from a navel orange
• 2 brandied or Luxardo cherries, optional

Instructions

1. Make the syrup: combine the demerara sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, just until the sugar fully dissolves and the liquid turns glossy and amber — do not let it boil hard or reduce. Drop in the strip of orange peel if using, remove from heat, and cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Discard the peel and store in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 month. It should be thick, like maple syrup.
2. Chill two rocks glasses in the freezer for at least 10 minutes while the syrup cools. Cut two wide strips of orange peel with a vegetable peeler, taking as little white pith as possible — pith is bitter in the wrong way.
3. Build the drink in a mixing glass or pint glass: 4 oz whiskey, 1 tsp demerara syrup, 4 dashes Angostura, 2 dashes orange bitters. Stir a few turns off-ice to loosen the syrup into the whiskey.
4. Fill the mixing glass two-thirds with cracked or standard ice cubes. Stir smoothly with a bar spoon (or the handle of a long spoon) for 30 to 40 seconds, until the outside of the glass is frosted and painful to hold. You are looking for roughly 20 percent dilution — the drink should taste rounded, not sharp.
5. Place one large 2-inch ice cube in each chilled rocks glass and strain the cocktail over it, dividing evenly, about 2 1/2 oz per glass.
6. Hold an orange peel skin-side down about 2 inches above each drink and pinch it firmly to spray the citrus oils across the surface. Rub the peel once around the rim, then drop it in. Add a brandied cherry if you like, and serve immediately with no straw — this drink is meant to be sipped and to open up as the cube melts.
7. Taste after the first sip. If it reads hot, stir a few seconds longer next time; if it reads flat or syrupy, cut back to 1/2 tsp syrup per drink.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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