Call me old fashioned

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.