My old-fashioned

Post on 22 April, 2020 by Dallin Malmgren

Pho­to by me

This one is more about pain relief than spir­i­tu­al upliftment…which is okay in the time of Coro­na. I want to write about my favorite drink: the Old-fash­ioned. This is how I make mine: The glass is impor­tant. I like a util­i­tar­i­an glass, some­thing that sits on the counter solidly—nothing del­i­cate or flutey (see pho­to), and noth­ing too big. I put about a quar­ter tea­spoon of sug­ar in the glass and add just a few drops of water, enough so I can swirl it around. I quar­ter an orange and add one good slice of one of the quar­ters to the swirly sug­ar. (I eat the rest of the quar­ter and save the rest of the orange for anoth­er day and anoth­er Old-fash­ioned.) Then I fill the glass with ice (cubes, not crushed—melts too fast oth­er­wise). Add a maraschi­no cher­ry, along with a lit­tle maraschi­no cher­ry juice. You must add Angus­tu­ra bitters—my recipe says a dash, but I like about four drops. Final­ly, the bour­bon. My go-to is Maker’s Mark, but my son likes Bulleit—I’m going to try it the next time I go to the liquor store. A hint if you are on a lim­it­ed bud­get (or cheap, like me): Evan Williams’ Bot­tled-in-bond (the white label) costs about half as much and is a very accept­able bourbon.

Three things I love about this drink: !) You have to drink it slow…it usu­al­ly lasts me about an hour and a half. Small sips, savored. 2) It tastes bet­ter as the drink goes on—at first it is just a tad too strong…as the ice melts in, it gets more and more mel­low. 3) My favorite part: you eat the orange and the cher­ry (in that order) when you fin­ish the drink…best tast­ing fruit imaginable!

Now that I think about it, this essay is about pain relief and spir­i­tu­al upliftment.

Comments

  • Reply

    I thor­ough­ly enjoyed read­ing this. It seems like a very fit­ting drink for you as well. Hope you and yours are stay­ing safe and dis­tanced through this crazy time.
    Lynn

    Lynn Bullock23 April, 2020
    • Reply

      Thanks for read­ing, Lynn, and I appre­ci­ate your com­ment. Hope you are also stay­ing safe.

      Dallin Malmgren29 April, 2020
  • Reply

    Agreed

    Gretch23 April, 2020
  • Reply

    One day I’ll ask you to make one for me. I know noth­ing about bour­bon so it doesn’t mat­ter which you use. Thank you.

    Anonymous22 April, 2020

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