Although we don’t have any official numbers, many, many bartenders in Toronto will tell you the same story — the Old Fashioned is the new vodka-soda.

The Old Fashioned started trending in bars a few years back, probably in response to the fact that cocktail lists have increasingly featured potent and punchy whisky drinks, designed by bartenders craving more flavour than vodka could offer. Customers were won over to the point that — given that the Old Fashioned can now be ordered in practically any bar — they began favouring it as their default “safety” drink over their old standby, the vodka-soda.

“I find a lot of people who come here and just don’t want to bother reading our whole menu will just order an Old Fashioned,” says Geena Lee, bartender at Mulberry Bar, a cocktail joint with a large, ambitious menu in the Christie Pits area. “That’s become the go-to classic drink that everyone will order.”

The drink’s popularity appears to have set off a few light bulbs at different liquor companies, too, judging by the release, this year, of three new ready-to-drink (RTD), bottled versions of this classic whisky cocktail — Founder’s Original Old Fashioned; J.P. Wiser’s Old Fashioned Canadian Whisky Cocktail and the Barchef Project’s Toasted Old Fashioned. Just add ice (or, in some cases, an orange peel) and enjoy.