Overproof Old Fashioned

When you're making a stirred cocktail, you always want to consider how temperature and dilution will affect the final drink. For an Old Fashioned variety you want something higher proof that won't just taste like water after a couple minutes. We use Charter 101 at the bar, which is an overproof bourbon from Kentucky by Buffalo Trace, but really you can use any 101-proof bourbon. Wild Turkey 101 and Four Roses Single Barrel are a bit easier to find, and would work really well for this drink.

Ramblin' Man, from Esquire

From The Silver Dollar, Louisville, KY

• 2 oz Charter 101 bourbon
• .25 oz honey syrup*
• 1 dash Peychaud's bitters
• 4 drops Sheldon bitters**

Put 1 dash of Peychaud's bitters into an old fashioned glass and add the honey syrup and bourbon.  Stir to taste with ice, pour into a separate old fashioned glass over 3 ice cubes and garnish with Sheldon bitters (do not stir ).

* The honey syrup is 2 parts honey: 1 part water, boiled until slightly thickened.

** Sheldon Bitters are house-made sassafras bitters, with notes of cinnamon and cherry bark. You can substitute with Bitter Truth Old Time Aromatic bitters or Scrappy's root-beer bitters.

See more Esquire Cocktails of the Week!

Happy New Year!

A delicious Buffalo Trace Manhattan with homemade brandied cherries! 

Happy New Year, from all of your favorite women who whiskey. 

Our New Year's Eve celebration involved delicious homemade Manhattans and lots of Champagne. 

I wish you all a wonderfully boozy 2013! 

On the Rocks: Gentlemen Edition

To open the Fall 2011 Season, Women Who Whiskey held it's second ever Gentlemen Edition, an expanded Women Who Whiskey event to which significant others and gentlemen friends are also invited to partake in the whiskey festivities.


Women Who Whiskey: Gentlemen Edition Part II was hosted at On The Rocks, one of my favorite new whiskey bars in town. 

On The Rocks has no pretentions, and it doesn't need them. With the second largest collection of whiskey in all of New York City (quite an impressive feat in a city with so many whiskey bars)--and a staff of friendly and very competent bartenders (although they could be, the bartenders at On The Rocks would abhor being called mixologists)--the bar is simple, friendly, welcoming, and down to earth. 

On The Rocks has twenty-five different kinds of bitters, to make your custom cocktail or to reinvent an old classic. 

A little bit like Little Branch, the bartenders take orders a la carte, giving you a base price for the whiskey you order, plus a bit for whatever kind of cocktail you order, and how you want it. 

On the rocks is where I was introduced to Michter's, Bulleit, and Buffalo Trace--all three producing delicious, but distinct, Manhattans. 

So I thought it would be the perfect place for a Women Who Whiskey event. I scoped out the bar the week prior and made friends with Howard, the owner, seemingly disgruntled at first but actually quite funny and full of great stories. He told me that if I came on a Sunday we would pretty much have the place to ourselves. 

And we did.

We chatted with the bartender--always happy to give a mini booze lesson--sampled some delicious whiskies, and tried out some tasty cocktails.

The bartender may have even given us a little sample of some newcomers.

Though a smaller event than the first Gentlemen Edition, it was nonetheless a huge success, and the bar was a fun discovery for those who had never been.

 I highly recommend On The Rocks if you want delicious, quality whiskey, well-made cocktails, and none of the pomp and circumstance that you usually find in bars with so many kinds of bitters.

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On the Rocks

696 10th Ave

(between 48th and 49th Streets)
212.247.2055
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