We tested eight bourbons in the same Old Fashioned recipe. These are the bottles worth your money.
An Old Fashioned is bourbon, sugar, bitters, and a peel. The bourbon is 90% of the drink. Spend more on the spirit than on the garnish.
We tested eight bourbons in the same Old Fashioned spec (60mL bourbon, half a barspoon of demerara syrup, three dashes of Angostura, expressed orange peel, single large rock of ice). Five bartenders, blind-tasted. These are the bottles that consistently scored highest, in three price brackets.
Under $80: Buffalo Trace
Buffalo Trace is the entry-level bourbon every Australian bar should have. Sweet caramel, vanilla, light spice. It’s unfussy, it makes a clean Old Fashioned, and it costs a third of what Maker’s Mark does without losing structure. If you can only own one bourbon, it is this one.
$80-$150: Eagle Rare 10 or Woodford Reserve
Eagle Rare is the same distillery as Buffalo Trace but with ten years of barrel age. It adds dried cherry, leather, and a longer finish. Woodford Reserve is fruitier, with more honey and apple. Either works beautifully. Pick Eagle Rare if you want a richer, more savoury Old Fashioned. Pick Woodford if you like brighter notes.
$150+: Knob Creek 12 or Booker’s
Knob Creek 12 is the dark horse. Twelve years in oak gives deep oak, dark chocolate, and a lingering campfire char. Booker’s is barrel-strength (around 62% ABV) and rebalances the entire drink, you may want to halve the bourbon and double the water from your ice. Both make Old Fashioneds that taste like a special occasion.
The bourbon to avoid
Anything labelled “flavoured bourbon”. Honey bourbon, apple bourbon, cherry bourbon. They are sweet liqueurs in bourbon-coloured bottles. The Old Fashioned will turn into a syrupy mess. If you want a flavoured Old Fashioned, use demerara, maple syrup, or a flavoured bitters, not a flavoured bourbon.
The recipes
Cocktail
Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned is the cocktail equivalent of a well-cut blazer. Four ingredients, no hiding place, looks like a million bucks, takes thirty seconds. It is what you…
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Cocktail
Smoked Old Fashioned
The Smoked Old Fashioned is theatre. Why you are pouring this tonight The Smoked Old Fashioned is theatre. Build the drink, then fill the glass with smoke from…
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Cocktail
Maple Old Fashioned
Real maple syrup replaces the sugar. Why you are pouring this tonight Real maple syrup replaces the sugar. The drink picks up an extra layer of smokiness and…
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Cocktail
Rye Old Fashioned
Swap bourbon for rye whiskey and the Old Fashioned becomes a drier, spicier, more serious drink. Why you are pouring this tonight I drank my first proper Rye…
Read the recipe →The technique matters as much as the bourbon. Stir for forty seconds in a mixing glass with cold ice (not the rocks glass), strain over a fresh single rock, express the orange peel by snapping it skin-down over the surface, drop the peel in. The expressed oils are 30% of why a great Old Fashioned tastes the way it does.