Maple Old Fashioned

I can’t remember a time when the Maple Old Fashioned was not our best selling cocktail. While it’s gone through some tweaks through the years, it’s not really strayed from the original, aside from the fact that we abandoned its inaugural build after round one.

Before we opened, we had very ambitious plans to make a lot of things in house: barbecue, sausages, lacto-fermented hot sauces and sauerkraut, jams, jellies and preserves, a side board full of tarts and cakes and pies everyday, biscuits and loaves of potato bread. Sounds luxurious, but this was nothing less than you might find in my ancestors’ homes on the regular.

When we opened we quickly realized we had a tiger by the tail. Demand was high from day one and we were massively understaffed. Some of those ambitious projects are still with us today. Some never saw the light of day, and some had to be dropped out of necessity no matter how dearly we loved them.

The first to go was the OG Maple Old Fashioned.

One of our most crackpot ideas was that we could age our own maple syrup in spent whiskey barrels to pour over pancakes. We could then age a cocktail in the barrel after the syrup came out and have something really magical for both the kitchen and the bar. The double use also made the barrel cost effective, right? Seemed like a perfect fit.

So before we opened, we landed a spent fifteen-gallon whiskey barrel from our friends at New Holland Spirits, filled it with some local maple syrup, and aged it for several weeks. We emptied the barrel of its now oak- and whiskey-infused maple deliciousness. That barrel was now extra everything. 

We thought the libation to follow should be simple and decided on an Old Fashioned, the cocktail that fathered all others. We filled the barrel with bourbon and instead of adding prepared bitters, we put a variety of bittering agents on the lees: wormwood, cherry bark, burdock, some warm baking spices like clove, star anise, and cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamon, and loads of fresh orange peel, and some roasted and cracked cherry pits, which, in addition to the cherry clinging to the pits, contribute the sweet and bitter flavor of almonds.

Several weeks went by and we drew the cocktail out and it was better than we dreamed it could be. We were super stoked and knew it was going to be a hit. We figured we should jump on the next batch as soon as we were able…

…and then the doors opened.

Both the maple syrup and the cocktail, which took months to produce, were gone in days. We were so poorly staffed, we could barely keep up with our regular prep so that first barrel was the last one we ever made.

We probably meant the version below to be a place holder til we were able to get on top of things and start another barrel but that day never came. Regardless, it’s still popular enough that we now batch it and sell it as a tap cocktail, and it’s still very delicious and perfectly approachable for home bartenders.

Here in the Midwest, we have to recognize both sides of the Old Fashioned coin. We have massive respect for the original and rightfully prefer it. But in the Mid Century Midwest, the Old Fashioned took on a new fashion, getting sweeter and fruitier as Supper Club bartenders mashed orange and maraschino cherries with too much sugar and cheap brandy.

It’s not our thing but we can’t completely turn our back to it. 

Stirring with the bourbon cherry and the juice that comes along in the spoon with it is a nod to the midwestern Old Fashioned, which for decades was THE Old Fashioned in these parts. We think the stir and the scant amount of boozy juice from your homemade bourbon cherries (or Woodford Reserve’s) is plenty to salute our supper club era bartenders without over sweetening and pulling the cocktail too far from its historic roots.

Maple Old Fashioned

Serves one.

  • 2 ounces Four Roses bourbon
  • 1/4 ounce Grade B maple syrup
  • A bourbon cherry with a scant bar spoon of bourbon cherry juice
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters
  • 1 dash Fee Brothers toasted almond bitters
  • 1 dash Regan’s orange bitters
  • Orange peel
Combine everything but the orange peel in a stirring glass and add ice. Stir for a very full thirty seconds and strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with the orange peel and the cherry retrieved from the stirring glass and serve at once.

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