One of the last sentences Humphrey Bogart supposedly uttered has echoed through global whisky dens ever since: "I should never have switched from Scotch to martinis."
True - whisky remains the ultimate go-to drink, one that speaks instantly of place and purpose; a perennial beverage, which is all about occasion.
And make ours an Old Fashioned, thanks.
Sure, it had a heady return to style - thanks to Don Draper - though it was on the GQ menu long before Matt Weiner decided to bring his '60s ad men to life. Because an Old Fashioned speaks of tradition and a time of simpler pursuits, and cocktails too - dating as it does to the 19th century.
An Old Fashioned is also the man's man of drinks - a muddled and alluring take that allows the spirit to find its voice. But don't just take our word for it.
"The best Old Fashioned will season the whisky and allow it to sing," says Alex Orwin, manager at Sydney's stellar CBD whisky bar, J&M. "A lot of the time the whisky gets drowned out by excessive use of bitters, over dilution and too much sugar."
Orwin suggests the first step is to find a preferred whisky, then play around with types of bitters and citrus that best work with that choice.
And if that doesn't work, then simply adopt his recipe for the classic cocktail, below.
Recipe: Classic Old Fashioned
By Alex Orwin, manager, J&M
Ingredients
60 ml Chivas Regal ultis whisky
2-3 ml simple syrup (2:1)
3 or 4 dashes of angostura bitters
Method
Stir ingredients in a mixing glass with cubed ice until the whisky loses a bit of its bite.
Strain over a large block of ice in a chilled rocks glass, and garnish by expressing a long orange zest over the drink.
