Ortega Old Fashioned (Bar Leone)

The Ortega Old Fashioned from Bar Leone in Hong Kong — named the World's Best Bar 2025. A fruit-forward, subtly smoky riff on the classic Old Fashioned, combining bourbon and Calvados with a honey-date syrup, a teaspoon of Ancho Reyes Verde, and chocolate bitters.

smart_display Published 2026-05-10 download Extracted 2026-05-12

5m Prep

5m Total

1 Servings

cocktail old-fashioned bourbon calvados bar-leone worlds-best-bar ancho-reyes classic-riff stirred whiskey

Ingredients

Cocktail

1 oz Bourbon
1 oz Calvados (an aged, funky bottling like Christian Drouin 8 Year recommended)
0.3 oz Honey-date syrup (see syrup sub-recipe below)
1 tsp Ancho Reyes Verde (green poblano chile liqueur)
2 dash Chocolate bitters
1 cube Large ice cube (for serving in the rocks glass)
thin slice Apple (lightly brushed with lemon/lime juice to prevent oxidation if cut ahead)

Honey-Date Syrup

300 g Floral honey (lychee honey if available; any high-quality floral honey works)
100 g Water
30 g Pitted dates (honey dates if available, otherwise high-quality Medjool dates)
0.5 g Orange blossom water (stirred in after straining)
generous pinch Salt (added after straining to balance the syrup)

Steps

1

Make the honey-date syrup: pit and roughly chop the dates, weigh out 30 g. Place dates, 300 g floral honey, and 100 g water in a sous-vide bag and seal.

Tip: No sous-vide setup? Make a regular honey syrup (2:1 honey:water) and stir in a little date molasses before using.

~5 min
2

Cook the bag sous-vide at 60 C (140 F) for 1 hour, agitating once or twice during the cook.

~60 min
3

Plunge the bag into an ice bath to cool, then strain the contents through a fine-mesh sieve, gently pressing the dates to extract as much syrup as possible.

~10 min
4

Stir 0.5 g orange blossom water and a generous pinch of salt into the strained syrup. Bottle and refrigerate.

~1 min
5

Build the cocktail: in a mixing glass, combine 1 oz bourbon, 1 oz Calvados, 10 ml (0.3 oz) honey-date syrup, 1 tsp Ancho Reyes Verde, and 2 dashes chocolate bitters.

Tip: If you're a Calvados fan, splurge on something funky and aged like Christian Drouin 8 Year — it transforms the drink.

~1 min
6

Add ice and stir until well chilled and properly diluted.

~1 min
7

Strain over a single large ice cube in a chilled rocks glass.

~1 min
8

Garnish with a thin slice of apple laid across the top of the glass. Serve immediately.

Tip: If prepping apple slices ahead, brush lightly with lemon or lime juice to keep them from browning.

~1 min

Cultural Context

Bar Leone is an Italian neighborhood-style bar in Hong Kong opened by Roman bartender Lorenzo Antinori, ranked #1 at The World's 50 Best Bars in 2025. Lorenzo's philosophy of 'cocktail popolare' (cocktail for the people) prioritizes warm Italian hospitality, quality ingredients, and approachable drinks over novelty or over-engineered technique. The Ortega Old Fashioned exemplifies that ethos: a deceptively simple riff on a classic, built from bourbon, Calvados, an aromatic honey-date syrup, Ancho Reyes Verde for green-chile spice, and chocolate bitters. Lorenzo personally shared the recipe with Truffles On The Rocks, who features it as Episode 2 of the World's Best Bars Cocktails series.