The Brandy "Wisconsin" Old Fashioned
- jsurm75
- Feb 2, 2016
- 2 min read
The Old Fashioned is easily one of my favorite cocktails. It is also speculated to be one of the oldest cocktails in the world. Hence the name, The Old Fashioned.
The Old Fashioned is quite a simple cocktail consisting of four simple ingredients: sugar, water (aka simple syrup), bitters and spirit. While I do love this old time recipe, the Old Fashioned has gone through many muddled variations throughout the years. Some good and some just downright undrinkable..
The Brandy “Wisconsin” Old Fashioned is a very popular and excellent twist of the whiskey Old Fashioned. Brandy is a spirit that is produced by distilling wine, and aged in oak barrels for a more mature age, taste, and color.
Some say the origins of the “Wisconsin” Old Fashioned date back to the time of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Apparently, at the time, Wisconsin had a great influence on German immigration. German’s not only took a liking to their beer, but also loved their Brandy. With whiskey being king in America during this time period, The Chicago World’s Fair was the first time that many Americans were introduced to an American Brandy. The fair was such a success that ¼ of the American population attended the fair with many coming from nearby Wisconsin. With German cultural penchant for brandy over whiskey, brandy became a popular selling point in Wisconsin.
The cocktail itself is quite simple and hands on if you want to impress your date because you get to do some muddling!
This is how I make my Brandy “Wisconsin” Old Fashioned’s:
In a mixing glass take: a slice of orange, two Luxardo cherries, a bar spoon of the cherry juice, a bar spoon of simple syrup (sugar cube and water if you don’t have simple syrup), a few dashes of Angostura bitters, and muddle them together.
Add 2 oz. of Brandy
Stir over ice
Strain into an Old-Fashioned Glass over a chunk of ice
Garnish with an Orange slice and a Cherry
*I like to strain this cocktail instead of building it in my glass so I get muddled fruit pieces in my mouth with each sip. But no one is stopping you from making it the way you like making it!
~ Shaman J.
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