Hot Honey Old Fashioned
This Hot Honey Old Fashioned is a simple and straight-forward variant on the classic old fashioned. It features hot honey sauce, bourbon or rye, and smoked chile bitters. If you’ve got the hot honey, this deliciously spicy old fashioned is ready in less than 5 minutes!
👩🏻🍳 Tamara Talks – A Hot Honey Old Fashioned Variant
As I mentioned in my recent post, Hot Honey Sauce, I was completely ignorant of this new chile-based trend (actually not that new😬). If you’ve followed me for awhile, you’re likely aware that I love chiles – Hatch, Peruvian, Mexican, Asian, you name it!
I initially bought a small jar of Mike’s Hot Honey to try. It is expensive! Right off the bat, I decided I needed to make my own hot honey sauce recipe. In the meantime, we tried using a bar spoon of the hot honey as the sweetening agent with a decent bourbon. I already had the smoked chile bitters on hand, and thought they might make a great substitute for angostura bitters.
My hunch was correct – success on the first go ’round! Of course we had to repeat a couple of times (on successive nights!🤣) to confirm. If you love a little spice in your life, you’re sure to like this old fashioned variant.
Best Whiskey for an Old Fashioned:
Whiskey is the traditional choice for an old fashioned. Rye has a dry, spicy, bold flavor profile. Bourbon tends to be sweeter with notes of caramel, vanilla, nuts, dry fruit or even chocolate. I like both for an old fashioned, but I know a lot more about bourbon.
📋Ingredients Notes
Here is a quick look at the ingredients in the recipe – it’s handy to use at the grocery store or as a summary of what you need. Skip to the recipe for quantities.
- whiskey – We always have a good bottle of bourbon and a more pedestrian bottle of bourbon in our liquor cabinet. Occasionally, we also have rye whiskey. Your choice is really a matter of personal preference. Use what you like. NOTE: I don’t recommend “bottom shelf” spirits for cocktails. Choose a whiskey that tastes decent if you sip it.
- hot honey – Homemade hot honey is super quick and easy to make, and has the added benefit of being cheaper! However, there are many good brands of hot honey available, and they’re fine in this hot honey cocktail.
- bitters – As shown in the photos, I used Hella’s Smoked Chile Bitters. There are other brands of chile bitters. If you don’t want the additional heat, orange bitters are a good option. On occasion, we do 2 dashes of the chile bitters, and 2 dashes of the orange bitters. Make it your own…
- garnishes – On photo day, I wanted to get fancy. I re-hydrated a couple of chile de arbol by covering them with boiling water and soaking for a few minutes. Using my cocktail channel knife, I cut long strips of orange peel. The softened chile de arbol and orange peel were threaded onto a cocktail pick. If you prefer to keep it simple, just an orange twist is sufficient.
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🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
- Fill a mixing glass about 2/3 full of ice. Add the whiskey, hot honey, and bitters. Stir ingredients for 30-40 seconds. Strain into serving glass over ice. Garnish with a lightly expressed orange twist or as shown in the photos with chile and orange peel. Cheers!
❓FAQ
Yes. My husband is my bartender. If he makes one, he always makes two.😂 I wrote the recipe for 1 cocktail to make it easy to scale.
The short answer is no. This classic cocktail is very simple, and the process is important to the end result. Shaking rather than stirring incorporates air into the cocktail lending a lovely, velvety texture.
💭 Tips
DO NOT use a cheap whiskey and expect it to be amazing. This might be obvious, but with a cocktail that is almost entirely one spirit, you’ll want to choose at least a semi-decent one. If you don’t like a spirit on its own, you will not like it in an Old Fashioned.
DO NOT shake your hot honey old fashioned, always stir it. This has nothing to do with temperature but everything to do with texture. Shaking it adds air and water, diluting the cocktail too quickly. Since the drink is primarily spirit, all you have to do is gently stir with ice, allowing for a higher quality texture.
For more on making the best old fashioned, see How to Make an Old Fashioned.
Whether a cocktail is a regular thing in your household (it is at Andersen casa), or not, it’s always fun to mix it up a little bit (pardon the pun). I hope you’ll give this hot honey cocktail a try! As always, if you have questions email me at tamara@beyondmeresustenance.com or respond in the comments section below.
Hot Honey Old Fashioned Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 ounces whiskey - bourbon or rye
- 1 barspoon hot honey - about 1 teaspoon
- 4 dashes bitters* - chile bitters and/or orange bitters
- orange twist - see post for more information
Instructions
- Fill a mixing glass about 2/3 full of ice. Add the whiskey, hot honey, and bitters. Stir ingredients for 30-40 seconds. Strain into serving glass over ice. Garnish as desired (see post for more information).
Notes
Nutrition
NOTE: Macronutrients are an approximation only using unbranded ingredients and MyFitnessPal.com. Please do your own research with the products you’re using if you have a serious health issue or are following a specific diet.
I’ve made this several times in fact it’s my go-to when I want something with a little more personality.
I made a hot honey syrup that I keep in the frig so it’s ready to go. Half and half chili and orange bitters and I top it off with a couple of luxardo cherries – mmmm sip sip!
Yay! I’m so glad you like it. Thanks for taking time to provide feedback Jeneane!
This is a really interesting and tasty variant on the classic Old Fashioned. It is a completely different drink with rye rather than bourbon, so go with your preference.
I almost always prefer the caramel and spicy notes of bourbon, but the rye is intriguing as well.