Almond Old Fashioned

A spirit-forward, wintry riff on the Old Fashioned, the Almond Old Fashioned replaces the sugar cube with a float of amaretto, letting its almond and vanilla notes weave through bourbon's oak and caramel without disrupting the drink's essential dryness.

The Almond Old Fashioned is a bourbon-forward riff on the Old Fashioned cocktail — a drink whose roots trace to the early 19th century United States — in which amaretto takes the place of the traditional sugar-and-bitters sweetener. The substitution works because bourbon and amaretto share complementary flavor compounds: the vanilla and caramel notes derived from bourbon's time in new charred oak barrels have a natural affinity with the almond, stone-fruit, and vanilla character of amaretto. The addition of Angostura bitters bridges the two, providing the aromatic complexity that defines the Old Fashioned format. The combination gained attention in craft cocktail circles during the 2010s and by 2024 and 2025 was appearing with regularity on bar menus as part of amaretto's broader resurgence in serious cocktail programs. Difford's Guide lists this style among its recommended amaretto cocktails.