Old Fashioned Romance Recipe
A brandy Old Fashioned sweetened with pomegranate grenadine and seasoned with cocoa bitters — rich, ruby-tinged and dessert-like.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 27%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Brandy60 ml (2 oz)
- Grenadine15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Chocolate bitters1 dash
How to Make It
- Add brandy, grenadine and chocolate bitters to a mixing glass with ice.
- Stir until well chilled.
- Strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass.
- Finish with a few chocolate shavings on top.
Garnish
Chocolate shavings
What it tastes like
The sweetness is pronounced and the spirit is right out front.
The technique
Stirring. All-spirit drinks are stirred — shaking whips air into them and ruins both the clarity and the texture. Thirty to forty seconds in a mixing glass, the spoon tracing the wall. You are after the same ~20% dilution, just slower and under control.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Brandy
- The general name for fruit-distilled spirits; in cocktails it usually means grape brandy. It stands in for cognac, and cognac stands in for it.
- Grenadine
- Pomegranate syrup. Most supermarket bottles are dyed corn syrup with no pomegranate in them; reducing pomegranate juice with an equal weight of sugar takes ten minutes and changes the drink completely.
- Chocolate bitters
- Cacao-nib bitters. Not sweet, and not to be confused with chocolate liqueur; it adds a dry cocoa depth to whiskey and rum drinks.
The Story
A modern take on the Old Fashioned template in which grenadine replaces the sugar cube; it circulates as a winter and Valentine's Day serve.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Old Fashioned Romance mixed?
- It is stirred and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Old Fashioned Romance?
- Roughly 27% ABV as served — a spirit-strength drink — sipped slowly, and it wants a glass of water beside it.
- Can a Old Fashioned Romance be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Old Fashioned Romance hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
The main ingredient here is also a dream symbol: Chocolate in a dream
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.