The Maple & Walnut is an Old Fashioned dressed for autumn. Rye whiskey is sweetened with pure maple syrup instead of sugar, and black walnut bitters join the Angostura — a deep, earthy, nutty drink built for cold weather.
The Old Fashioned, gone to the woods in October.
Maple for Sugar
Maple syrup does what a sugar cube does — it sweetens — but it brings flavour with it: a woody, caramelised, faintly mineral depth that plain sugar cannot. Use a real, dark, robust maple syrup; the imitation stuff is mostly corn syrup and adds nothing.
Black Walnut Bitters
A few dashes of black walnut bitters alongside the Angostura push the drink toward the nutty, autumnal register the maple sets up. Together they make the rye taste rounder and warmer — an Old Fashioned that tastes of the season.
The Rye I Reach For
My own bottle for this one is Tumblin' Dice — the 8-year straight rye from Proof & Wood — and I won't pour anything younger than 8 into it. It's a high-rye MGP blend (95% rye) bottled at barrel proof, and both of those things matter here: the extra proof keeps the whiskey from disappearing under the maple, and the years in oak bring their own caramel and baking-spice notes that fall right in line with the syrup and the walnut. A softer, younger rye gets swallowed. This one holds its ground.
Stir It Like an Old Fashioned
Nothing about the method changes. Stir the rye, maple, and bitters with ice until cold and properly diluted, then strain over one large cube. The maple needs a moment's stirring to dissolve fully — give it that, and the drink comes together.
The Old Fashioned Family
The original cocktail — spirit, sugar, and bitters over ice, with an orange peel.
- 2 ozBourbon or rye
- 1 cubeSugar
- 2 dashesAngostura bitters
Phil Ward's craft landmark — a split of tequila and mezcal for the whiskey.
- 1 1/2 ozReposado tequila
- 1/2 ozMezcal
- 1 tspAgave syrup
The Midwest's Old Fashioned — brandy, muddled orange and cherry, and a soda top ordered sweet, sour, or press.
- 2 ozBrandy
- 1 cubeSugar
- MuddleOrange & cherry
Aged Demerara rum and demerara syrup — a unified, dark, deeply warming Old Fashioned.
- 2 ozDemerara rum
- 1 tspDemerara syrup
- 2 dashesAngostura bitters
Ward's pale, floral Old Fashioned — gin, St-Germain, and orange bitters, with a grapefruit twist.
- 2 ozPlymouth gin
- 1/2 ozSt-Germain
- 2 dashesOrange bitters
Rye and bonded applejack in equal parts — the Old Fashioned rebuilt out of American spirits.
- 1 ozRye whiskey
- 1 ozBonded applejack
- 1/4 ozRich demerara syrup
A carajillo in Old Fashioned form — coffee liqueur and Licor 43 over cognac and rye.
- 1 ozCognac
- 1 ozRye whiskey
- 1/4 ozLicor 43
The same drink with its collar turned up — a teaspoon of maraschino and a dash of absinthe.
- 2 ozRye whiskey
- 1 tspMaraschino liqueur
- 1 dashAbsinthe
Bourbon washed with rendered bacon fat, maple for the sugar — the drink that made fat-washing ordinary.
- 2 ozBacon-fat-washed bourbon
- 1/4 ozMaple syrup
- 2 dashesAngostura bitters