Why President Truman's Old Fashioned Would Put Modern Cocktails To Shame

If you have a favorite cocktail, chances are you have a preferred way to make it, whether it's a specific brand of spirit, the ratios, or even the kind of garnish. U.S. President Harry S.Truman was a stickler for how he preferred his old fashioned cocktail, which the White House staff quickly discovered when he and First Lady Bess Truman moved into the Executive Mansion in April 1945. On the first evening before dinner, Mrs. Truman asked for two old fashioneds, she and the new president's favorite cocktail.

Alonzo Fields, the long-serving White House chief butler who was an experienced and exceptional bartender, made the cocktail in his usual way: bourbon, a little sugar, bitters, and orange slices in chilled glasses. The Trumans drank them, but after dinner, complained to the Chief Usher J.B. West that the drinks were too sweet. The next night, Fields tried again, but this time the complaint was that it tasted like fruit punch. At his wits end, Fields dropped some ice into the glasses and poured the bourbon on top, which he then served to the Trumans. "Now that's an old-fashion," Mrs. Truman said, according to historian David McCullough, who recalled the incident during a 1986 Ford Hall Forum lecture. Apparently, Mr. Truman concurred.

The old fashioneds that Head Butler Alonzo Fields first made for Harry and Bess Truman were the traditional version of the tipple, with an origin story that harks back to the very first cocktails in the early 19th century. That includes what's thought to be the first printed definition of a cocktail from a May 1806 Balance & Columbian Depository newspaper from Hudson, New York, in which the editor describes a cocktail as "a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters." The old fashioned would eventually become a lightning rod for fans of the cocktail, with some enjoying the drink chock full of various fruits, from maraschino cherries to a pineapple slice (or both).

Others, such as columnist Lucius Beebe and bon vivant Crosby Gaige, were firmly in the Trumans' camp. Beebe described the heavily garnished version as "a fruit-cup floating in a bath of warm whiskey" while Gaige opined that "serious-minded persons omit fruit salads from old fashioneds" (via Eric Felten's "How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well") What Fields didn't know was that Truman's taste for bourbon was legendary. He began his day with a shot of bourbon and a glass of orange juice, but actually only had a few drinks a day, which included his before-dinner cocktail. So if you want to drink your old fashioned cocktail like President Truman, omit everything except the bourbon and ice, or you can stick with the classic recipe for the old-school cocktail.