An old fashioned is three things: whiskey, sugar, bitters. That's the whole argument. Which is why the drink lives or dies on what you use for the sugar — and why swapping plain simple syrup for something with actual spice in it changes the drink more than any garnish ever will.

Cardamom is the right spice for the job. It's warm without being sweet-hot the way cinnamon is, and it lands in the same register as the vanilla and oak already sitting in a good bourbon. Add real vanilla alongside it and you're not covering the whiskey up. You're agreeing with it.

Here's the version we make at the shop.

What you'll need

• 2 oz bourbon or rye
• ¾ oz Dave's Cardamom Vanilla Syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• A cocktail cherry, and an orange peel if you have one

How to make it

1. Add the bourbon, syrup and bitters to a mixing glass with ice.
2. Stir until the outside of the glass is cold — about 20 seconds. Don't shake it. Shaking a spirit-forward drink clouds it and waters it down.
3. Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass.
4. Garnish with the cherry. If you're using the orange peel, squeeze it over the surface first so the oils land on the drink, then drop it in.

A few notes

Bourbon or rye? Bourbon leans into the vanilla and gives you a rounder, softer drink. Rye pushes back with pepper and keeps the cardamom sharp. We make it both ways. If it's your first time, start with bourbon.

On sweetness. ¾ oz is our house pour. If you like a drier old fashioned, drop to ½ oz — you'll still get the spice, just less body.

Making a few. This batches well for a dinner party. Multiply everything by the number of drinks, stir it all together with ice in a pitcher, then strain into glasses as people arrive. Keep the garnish for the moment you pour.

No alcohol tonight? Build it over strong cold black tea instead of whiskey — 6 oz tea, ½ oz syrup, 2 dashes bitters. It won't taste like an old fashioned, but it's genuinely good, and it's the same warm cardamom note.

About the syrup

Dave's Cardamom Vanilla Syrup is steeped cardamom pods, real vanilla bean paste and pure cane sugar, cooked down in small batches at our Rhode Island roastery. No corn syrup, no artificial flavors, no colors — which matters more in a three-ingredient drink than in almost anything else you'd put it in. There's nowhere for a cheap syrup to hide in an old fashioned.

It also does the work you'd otherwise be doing yourself. Making cardamom syrup from scratch means toasting pods, steeping, straining, and finding room in the fridge for a jar you'll use twice. This is that, already done, in a bottle that keeps.

Cozier drink more your speed? Try the Warm Cardamom Vanilla Chai Latte, or browse all our syrup recipes.