The Old Fashioned
Those who claim that jazz is America’s original art form are snubbing a creative genre that predates it by nearly a century: the cocktail. In 1806, a New York political sheet first described it as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters” that was purported to be an “electioneering potion” of great use to “a democratic candidate.” Political backbiting is still with us and so is the cocktail, only under a newly fashioned name: the Old Fashioned.
Like jazz music itself, the basic formula has been improvised on ever since. It wasn’t long before so many drinks went by the catchall term “cocktail” that it had lost its classic …
