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I just meant rough booze by bath tub flavour, a common way to drink was to add sugar and bitters to a rough moonshine spirit to make it drinkable and older people used to still order drinks that way (even though the quality of spirits, especially whiskey, had improved) . It was just refined and turned in to a cocktail, hence the name 'old fashioned'.
Well that's what I've always known the story to be anyway :)
Hmm. More of a Kentucky bourbon origin and no mention of the bath tub flavour although given the introduction of sweeter ingredients in the 30s (prohibition era) you may have a point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_fashioned_(cocktail)