Brandy Old Fashioned

Wisconsin's beloved twist on the classic Old Fashioned, featuring brandy muddled with fruit and topped with soda or sour mix.

The Brandy Old Fashioned is simultaneously one of the oldest cocktail formulas in America and the subject of one of the country's most specific and persistent regional traditions. The Old Fashioned's documented foundation is the 1806 definition of the cocktail itself — spirit, sugar, water, and bitters — and brandy was the most common American cocktail spirit at that time. In the broad national context, bourbon eventually supplanted brandy as the Old Fashioned's standard base. In Wisconsin, the trajectory ran differently. The state's large German and Scandinavian immigrant population arrived through the mid-19th century and brought with them a preference for brandy, particularly domestic brandy, as the spirit of choice. Wisconsin's consumption of brandy per capita consistently ranks highest in the United States, and the state uses more brandy annually than any other, with the Korbel brand accounting for a significant share. The Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned differs from the standard in several characteristic ways: it is made with domestic brandy rather than cognac or Kentucky bourbon, typically served sweet (with a splash of lemon-lime or cherry soda) or sour (with sour mix), and garnished with a maraschino cherry and an orange slice muddled into the bottom of the glass. The muddled fruit — a technique widely dismissed in craft cocktail circles as a distraction — is in Wisconsin not optional but definitional. The drink's status as the unofficial Wisconsin cocktail is so established that any bar in the state that cannot make one to specification is considered to have failed a basic professional test.