Get Goodwater’s long lasting Old Fashioned riff

In partnership with Monkey Shoulder

The Old Fashioned is the original cocktail. It’s about as analogue a drink can be in today’s clarified, carbonated, and technique-driven world. But classics never really go out of fashion, do they?

The same could be said for vinyl records, which is what has inspired Monkey Shoulder’s latest collaboration and celebration of the Old Fashioned.

“The Old Fashioned is a drink you sit on and savour, much like playing a record,” says Monkey Shoulder brand ambassador Rachael Bartlett. ‘It’s also a great cocktail to riff on, and using Monkey Shoulder as the base opens up a multitude of flavour combinations and possibilities.”

In this series, Bartlett asked three top bartenders from three great Melbourne bars, to make a Monkey Shoulder Old Fashioned inspired by a record.

Last week we heard from Margot Michat, of Brunswick bar Waxflower; this week, it’s John Hallett of Goodwater, with an Old Fashioned riff you can linger over for a longer period of time, thanks to the slow flavour release of the hard candy garnish.

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BOOTHBY: Where are we John?

JOHN HALLETT: We are here at Goodwater in Northcote. A whiskey bar that doesn’t really feel like a whiskey bar was what we wanted to do, and I feel like we’ve nailed that pretty well.

BOOTHBY: Tell us about the drink and what you were asked too do?

JOHN HALLETT: We’ve been approached by Monkey Shoulder to make an Old Fashioned that’s inspired by a vinyl record that we really like. This one here is inspired by Osibisa. It’s their first release in 1972. Essentially what we’ve done here is a blood plum, coconut and muscovado sugar. Very straightforward aside from that, Angostura Bitters and the Monkey Shoulder. That’s also been served with a blood plum hard candy which is added into the drink at the end and sort of holds the texture, holds the palate weight for a little bit longer.

It dissolves very slowly as it is a little bit of a larger solid piece — which took quite a while to put together. Essentially what will happen is, it’ll sit there and slowly dilute but when the drink starts to get a little thin, just give the candy a little zhuzh and it’ll start to agitate a little bit and release some more of that blood plum caramel.

It holds up over a very long time. We did a test yesterday and about an hour was the cutoff point to still have a bit of oomph. I don’t think a drink should last that long, but you know, things happen. Maybe you’ll go pick up your laundry or life gets in the way.

BOOTHBY: Can you describe the atmosphere here?

JOHN HALLETT: We are a little bit out of the way. We’ve built up a really solid core of people that live up in Northcote, Thornbury, the surrounding areas. They come here for warm service, great food, awesome drinks. It’s always a pretty laid back atmosphere which is really nice because I don’t really have the energy to do anything else anymore!

BOOTHBY: What did you call the drink?

JOHN HALLETT: We call this one the B-side. Because every good record should have a B-side, I think. And this Old Fashioned absolutely does as well.

BOOTHBY: Because of the way the hard candy dissolves?

JOHN HALLETT: That’s it. You can keep it running. It adds a different depth once the sugar starts dissolving a little bit.

BOOTHBY: It doesn’t get too sweet though?

JOHN HALLET: It doesn’t get too sweet, no. As it’s diluting, it’s keeping the balance there pretty well. But you get a much richer sort of blood plum caramel coming through in the second act.

John Hallett

Goodwater, Northcote
The record: Osibisa by Osibisa

“I was in a record shop, having a dig as you do, and the thing that stood out for me with this one was the cover art,” says Goodwater bar manager John Hallett. “The guy who illustrated this is named Roger Dean — he did a lot of weird architecture stuff in the 60s and 70s. On the inside the tagline says, ‘A crisscross of funky rhythm’ and I was like — I am sold.

“Like the album, this drink also starts off quite softly, but you could sip one Old Fashioned and listen to this whole album and the drink would still be good at the end.” That’s thanks to the hard crack plum candy they’ve made, which — as the drink dilutes — helps to give body and weight to the drink, so it doesn’t taste overdiluted. It’s one for the slow sippers.