After muddling the sugar a little, add a swathe of orange peel and muddle it into the sugar, releasing the oils from the orange. Then take your time mixing; one measure of good spirit and two cubes of ice, then stir it until the ice dissolves. Another measure of spirit, two more cubes, and repeat.

Taste it to see if you need to add anything else for balance or to dilute it some more. Then top it with fresh ice and a clean swathe of orange. “At The Lakes, we like to flame the orange peel over the entire drink so you get all of the essential oils from the orange all over your drink, and it’s more of a multi-sensory experience,” says Hall.

The Lakes Distillery

So Bourbon or Rye?

It all comes down to flavor preference. While both bourbon and rye are predominantly made in the US, “for a spirit to be called bourbon, it must be at least 51 percent corn and be aged in new American Oak casks,” says Jason Glynn, bar manager at whisky-specialist bar Iron Stag in London’s Hoxton. Rye whiskey is, by law, made from a mash of at least 51 percent rye and aged in charred, new oak barrels.

Appropriately, the flavor difference between the two boils down to their main ingredients: The corn mash used in bourbon makes for a sweet and full-bodied flavor while the rye mash in rye whiskey creates spicy tones and a drier (i.e., less sweet) taste.

“Bourbon creates a sweeter style of whiskey due to the high fructose sugar content,” says Hall. “Rye, on the other hand, gives a spicier edge, with a peppery bit similar to that of a Rye Bread. It also tends to be typically higher in abv%, which means it shines through well after the drink has been diluted.

“Because of the sweetness of the bourbon, it will make for a well rounded classic Old Fashioned, and is the most commonly used,” says Hall. “It’s also perfectly acceptable to make an Old Fashioned with a combination of the two, meaning you get the best of both worlds.”