Benton's Old Fashioned

The Benton's Old Fashioned was created by bartender Don Lee at PDT (Please Don't Tell), a well-known speakeasy-style bar in New York City's East Village. The cocktail was developed around 2007 during the height of the bacon-infusion trend in the craft cocktail movement.

The process involves melting Benton's bacon fat into bourbon, letting the mixture infuse for several hours, then freezing it so the solid fat can be skimmed off the top. The bourbon retains a smoky, savory pork flavor while remaining liquid and clear, a technique known as fat-washing.

Benton's is a family-run smokehouse in Madisonville, Tennessee, famous for its dry-cured, hickory-smoked bacon with an intense smoky flavor. The cocktail specifically calls for Benton's because its bold, smoky character infuses the bourbon more distinctly than standard supermarket bacon.

Beyond the bacon fat-washed bourbon, the cocktail typically includes a sweetener such as maple syrup, along with Angostura bitters and sometimes orange bitters. The combination creates a balance of smoky, sweet, and bitter flavors that made it one of the most iconic cocktails of the late-2000s craft movement.