Elemental Mixology  PDX
Fac Potiones Excellens
Tipples → Mixed Drinks → Slings → Cocktails → Plain Cocktails

Old-fashioned Hoffman House Cocktail

Old-fashioned Hoffman House Cocktail

Elemental Mixology's Rating:

Jump to: History | Old-fashioned Lump Sugar | Short Script Instructions for One Portion | Full Recipe and Instructions for One Portion

Short Script Instructions for One Portion

Into an old-fashioned tumbler goes:

  • 2 dashes Angostura™ Aromatic bitters
  • 1 piece old-fashioned lump sugar
  • 1 segement suprèmed orange
  • ¼ ponyfull water

Crush the above into juice-accented cocktail water (without fully dissolving the sugar). Add:

  • demitasse spoon
  • 1 cube service ice
  • 1 jigger Maryland-style whiskey

Garnish with twisted orange zest, and skewered cherry.

Full Recipe and Instructions for One Portion

Have the folowwing items:

Service-ware

Tools

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Use the fetcher spoon to help skewer a preserved cherry most the length through and reserve it.
  2. Cut a ~1” wide and ~3” long strip of lemon zest with minimal pith and reserve it.
  3. Set the old-fashioned tumbler in the work area. Into it goes:
    • • gentian bitters — 2 dashes
       [1 scruplespoonfull / ¼ tsp. / ~1.25 ml.]
    • • sugar — 1 lump
       (the size is not very important – see step #8)
    • • common orange — 1 suprèmed segment
      •  [¼ fl-oz. / ~7.5 ml.]
  4. Use the disc of the barspoon, or a bar masher, to crush the above into cocktail water without fully dissolving the sugar.
  5. Remove the tool and take the old-fashioned tumbler to the ice. Into it is added:
    • • service ice — 1 cube
  6. Return the old-fashioned tumbler to the work area. Into it is added:
    • • Maryland-style whiskey — 1 jiggerfull
       [2 poniesfull / 2 fl-oz. / ~60 ml.]
    • • optional service ice — 2nd cube (if desired)
  7. Garnish the drink with:
    • • preserved cherry (reserved in step #2) — 1
       (placed in the drink with the handle or knob of the skewer on the rim).
    • • lemon zest (reserved in step #2) — 1 strip
       (twisted zest-side-down over the drink, rubbed on the rim, and put into the drink).
  8. Insert the demitasse spoon. Do not stir. Let the drinker stir if more sweetness is desired.
  9. Serve the drink on the napkin, with the spoon standing out at three o'cloock (from the drinker's point of view).

Tipple History

:

  • The Hoffman Houose Bartender's Guide. New York; Charles Mahoney, 1905

Compare and contrast with the Old-fashioned Barney French Cocktail, and the Old-fashioned Whiskey Cocktail.

When I first tended bar in the autumn of 1987, I was taught to crush up some orange and cherry into the Cocktail water (bitters, water, and sugar) as a normal part of "The Old-fashioned" [sic]. Only later did I learn that the fruit was not original to the Old-fashioned Whiskey Cocktail. The assumption of the fruit has thankfully faded from the American bar. But, whence did it come? The answer is that it seems to have come from the Hoffman House Hotel, circa the year 1900.

Wilson™ whiskey was called for in the drink. That was a blended whiskey made of a minority portion of Highspire Monongahela-style rye whiskey (100% rye, part of which was malted), blended into a greater amount of neutral grain spirit. I feel that a Maryland-style rye whiskey is the best subsitute for such a blend.

Old-fashioned Lump Sugar

Old-Fashioned Lump White Sugar

The image above is of old-fashioned lump white sugar. Never use modern sugar cubes for archaic, or old-fashioned, Cocktails – nor Slings of any type.
Modern sugar cubes are standardized to the amount of one teaspoonful of granulated sugar. They are porous and will end up fully dissolved into any drink in which they are placed. This means that opting for a lesser amount of sugar requires cutting cubes into pieces. By retruning to the use of old-fashioned sugar for old-fashioned drinks, one will find in the package large, medium and small lumps. Also, lump sugar is dense enough, and the crystals of sugar it is made of are large enough, that any of it not dissolved during the crushing with water into Sling water, Toddy water, or Cocktail water, will remain as a crystaline layer on the bottom of the tumbler. This is why Old-fashioned Slings, Old-fashioned Toddies, and Old-fashioned Cocktails, were served with a spoon in the tumbler. In the case that the drinker wished the drink to be sweeter, he, or she, only had to use the little demitasse spoon supplied to stir more of the sugar up into the drink. This is why I often tell students that when using old-fashioned lump sugar in a Cocktail made the old-fashioned way, even using a large lump in a drink destined for a drinker with dry preference is no problem. Dissolve only a very small amount of the sugar into the Cocktail water. The rest will remain at the bottom unless the drinker wishes to stir. Unless one is using old-fashioned sugar and demitasse spoons, there isn't really any thing old-fashioned about the Old-fashioned Whiskey Cocktail.

* When using Amazon links from this site, a very small fraction might be paid to Elemental Mixology without affecting the purchase price.