Bourbon or rye for an Old Fashioned?

Both are right. Bourbon gives you a rounder, sweeter drink; rye gives you a drier one with pepper on the finish. If you are buying one bottle to cover the most drinks, rye is the more useful, because bourbon can stand in for it more gracefully than the reverse.

Can I use Scotch in these recipes?

Not as a straight swap. Scotch brings malt, and often smoke, into drinks built around the sweetness of corn or the spice of rye. Some work beautifully; most become a different cocktail. Treat it as a new drink rather than a substitution.

Why does my Old Fashioned taste watery?

Almost always the ice. Small or wet cubes melt faster than they chill, so the drink dilutes before it gets cold. Use big, solid cubes, stir rather than shake, and taste as you go.

Stirred, spirit-forward, older than most

Whiskey cocktails

The oldest corner of the cocktail canon. These are drinks with very little hiding in them — mostly spirit, sugar and bitters — so the bottle you pour is most of the flavour.

Recipes here

Guides to go with them

Bourbon or rye

Almost every drink here was written for one or the other, and the difference is the grain. Bourbon is at least 51% corn, which makes it rounder and sweeter, with vanilla and caramel from the new charred oak it has to be aged in. Rye is at least 51% rye, and it is drier and peppery — the spice is the point.

Neither is correct. An Old Fashioned made with bourbon is soft and comfortable; the same drink with rye is sharper and reads more grown-up. Both are the drink. Make it twice and pick a side.

Why these drinks are unforgiving

A whiskey sour has citrus and sugar to hide behind. A Manhattan or an Old Fashioned does not — it is spirit, a little sweetness, bitters and dilution, so every decision shows. This is where technique earns its keep: stir properly, get the dilution right, and use ice worth the name.

It is also where a slightly better bottle is most visible. Not an expensive one, necessarily — a bonded whiskey at 50% will do more for a stirred drink than something older and softer.

Pour one

14 to make with whiskey

All recipes →

Classic

Make the other half yourself

The syrups these drinks keep asking for

Demerara Syrup →Grenadine →Simple Syrup →

Asked and answered

Questions, answered

Bourbon or rye for an Old Fashioned?: Both are right. Bourbon gives you a rounder, sweeter drink; rye gives you a drier one with pepper on the finish. If you are buying one bottle to cover the most drinks, rye is the more useful, because bourbon can stand in for it more gracefully than the reverse.
Can I use Scotch in these recipes?: Not as a straight swap. Scotch brings malt, and often smoke, into drinks built around the sweetness of corn or the spice of rye. Some work beautifully; most become a different cocktail. Treat it as a new drink rather than a substitution.
Why does my Old Fashioned taste watery?: Almost always the ice. Small or wet cubes melt faster than they chill, so the drink dilutes before it gets cold. Use big, solid cubes, stir rather than shake, and taste as you go.

The bartender’s note

One drink, one story, one bottle worth buying.

Thursday evening, so you have time to shop. No more than that.

Whiskey cocktails

Bourbon or rye

Why these drinks are unforgiving

14 to make with whiskey

12 Mile Limit

Final Ward

La Louisiane

Lion's Tail

Manhattan

Old Fashioned

Paper Plane

Revolver

Sazerac

Scofflaw

Suffering Bastard

Vieux Carré

Ward Eight

Whiskey Sour

The syrups these drinks keep asking for

Questions, answered

One drink, one story, one bottle worth buying.