Stanley Tucci/Instagram
- Stanley Tucci is back with a new cocktail class on Instagram.
- This time he demonstrated how to make an Old Fashioned, whipping one up for his wife Felicity Blunt at 11:30 a.m.
- Tucci’s recipe includes bourbon, sugar water, Angostura bitters, a twist of lemon, and a twist of orange.
- Insider spoke to top NYC mixologists who said Tucci “pretty much nailed it,” and offered some tips to make his cocktail recipe even better.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Stanley Tucci is back with another cocktail lesson, and this time he’s taking on the Old Fashioned.
“One is never too old to be in fashion,” Tucci wrote in the caption of his new Instagram video, which has received more than 360,000 views at the time of writing.
Much like his hit Negroni tutorial — which turned Tucci into a quarantine hero at the start of the pandemic — the new clip shows the actor making a drink for his wife, Felicity Blunt.
"I'd like to make you an Old Fashioned, would you like one?" Tucci asks Blunt (who is the sister of his "The Devil Wears Prada" costar Emily Blunt) at the start of the video.
"I'd love one," she replies.
"Good, cause it's 11:30 in the morning and it's about time to start," he tells her with a smile.
Stanley Tucci/Instagram
Then, as smooth jazz tinkles in the background, Tucci's cocktail class begins.
"This is a really great drink because it's so simple," he explains. "It's basically bourbon, sugar water, Angostura bitters, a twist of lemon, and a twist of orange."
Tucci begins by adding some ice to a glass. He then throws in about two ounces of bourbon and "just a teaspoon" of the simple syrup.
As Tucci stirs the ingredients together, he explains the origin story behind the Old Fashioned.
Stanley Tucci/Instagram
"Now, supposedly, the story that I like about this drink is that there was this whiskey cocktail, but it was made in so many different ways that people started to request, 'Can you please just make a whiskey cocktail the old-fashion way?' And this is the old-fashioned way."
Tucci then adds a dash of the Angostura bitters, gives it a mix, and strains the drink into a glass with ice.
"Ideally, you want to have one of those super big ice cubes that you get," he said. "We don't have that, so I'm just using regular ice cubes."
Stanley Tucci/Instagram
Tucci then takes the orange and lemon twists, rubbing both peels along the rim of the glass before throwing them into the drink.
"I saw somebody do that once," he quips.
Tucci then gives his glass a little shake before taking a sip.
"I'll try it first," he tells Blunt, nodding happily after tasting his creation.
Stanley Tucci/Instagram
Tucci's Old Fashioned is a huge hit on social media, and top New York mixologists told Insider that his recipe — much like Reese Witherspoon's fall cocktail — is almost flawless.
"We have to say, he pretty much nailed it," said Gregory Lucas and Parker Boase of Liquid Lab NYC .
Lucas and Boase said that there's just a few changes they would make — including the order in which Tucci added his ingredients.
"We would suggest switching the simple syrup for a sugar cube, and then muddle it with an orange peel and Angostura bitters," they said. "Finally, add the bourbon and stir with ice — this is the traditional method for preparing an Old Fashioned."
Stanley Tucci/Instagram
Aleksey Reznikov, of The Garrett, also recommends adding a couple of extra dashes of the Angostura bitters.
"You want four to five dashes of bitters to make it count," he said. "And if you really want to bring out the flavors, then add the orange bitters as well."
- Read more:
- Stanley Tucci taught fans how to make a Negroni, and people are loving the actor's bartending skills
- I made a Negroni inspired by Stanley Tucci's recipe, and the surprisingly easy drink made me feel fancy without leaving the house
- I lived like Stanley Tucci in lockdown for a day and while my house has never been cleaner, I wouldn't do it again
- Reese Witherspoon's homemade fall cocktail is an autumnal take on the Aperol spritz, and even mixologists approve