![old_fashioned_l.jpg](https://images.esteem.app/DQmdbzri5nnNcPxgJU8MoeQpvfTwcmheeu3bbJPC68stPgq/old_fashioned_l.jpg)

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![C](https://images.esteem.app/DQmTTs9CHwDRaJAHjfiRpxF1xonNuVMUiaDp8KDVfzboaJ5/C_50x50.png) all me old fashioned, but when I order a drink, I expect it to be made a certain way.


### Frame of reference

Right, so the title of this post is just a pun *(I didn't say it was a clever one)*. It references a cocktail appropriately named, "Old fashioned".

My qualms are not with this cocktail but rather, with the re-interpretation of this cocktail.

I've been interested in cocktails for a number of years now and the first thing I do when I visit a new bar or restaurant, is flip through the cocktail menu. What I find there is sometimes **Amazing**, but usually a collection of classic cocktails, seeming like an afterthought. _**Rarely am I, pleasantly surprised.**_

The most egregious flaw I've seen and it pops up once in a while. Is the addition of soda/seltzer water to an Old fashioned.

### Let me explain

The more you get into the world of cocktails, the more you realize that a lot of it is just modifications of an existing recipe, so called _riffs._ The question is, when is  it a riff and when does speciation occur?

To most of the cocktail world, two things happen when you create a riff. Attribution to the bartender or institution who initially created it and keeping your modifications in the spirit of the original. 

There is a whole family of drinks called Fizzes, that included carbonated water in their ingredients and the old fashioned is not one of it's members.

### Room for interpretation

For any art form to evolve and I do mean art form, you need to provide space for exploration. But this exploration isn't done in a vacuum. 

So, by all means, tinker away. Add citrus juice, liqueurs, different bitters and yes, even soda water. But don't call _**it**_, old fashioned.