When you get right down to it, the Old Fashioned is little more than a slug of whiskey, seasoned and sweetened. Yet for all of its suave simplicity, the drink remains as relevant today as it was when it first captured drinkers’ hearts 200 years ago.

Start by using good whiskey, the rule being that if you wouldn’t sip it by itself it has no place at the helm of an Old Fashioned. (There are other whiskey drinks for masking subpar booze—this isn’t one of them.) From there, the cocktail-minded seem to break into two camps: simple syrup or muddled sugar.

While a barspoon of syrup can cut your prep time in half, it robs the drink of some of the weight and texture that makes it so appealing. And anyway, what’s the big rush? The Old Fashioned isn’t going anywhere.

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 dashes Angostura bitters

1 teaspoon water

60 ml whiskey

Garnish: orange peel

Steps

Add the sugar, bitters and water into a rocks glass, and stir until sugar is nearly dissolved.

Fill the glass with large ice cubes, add the whiskey, and gently stir to combine.

Express the oil of an orange peel over the glass, then drop in.

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Disclaimer- Excerpts of this article have been sourced from liquor.com