Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet

Nearly Friday!  Thank goodness!

For today's potions class, we will tackle a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet.  The Brandy Old Fashioned is considered the unofficial state cocktail in Wisconsin.  Having an Old Fashioned is a taste of home.  (We tried getting one in Aspen.  Yikes.  Very bad.)  In Madison, Wisconsin there is even a pub called The Old Fashioned (http://www.theoldfashioned.com/).

Old Fashioneds were originally made with whiskey.  In 1893, at the Chicago World's Fair, a new brandy distiller (Korbel) was sampling their spirits.  They began pouring the classic whiskey cocktail with brandy.  The German crowd from Milwaukee loved it.

To make a proper Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet:

• Put a sugar cube or one teaspoon of sugar in the bottom of a highball glass.
• Add three dashes of Angostura bitters.
• To add a little more fruit flavor, add a splash of cherry juice, and muddle  an orange slice and cherry with the bitters and sugar.
• Add 2 ounces of brandy.  We use Korbel.  Stir it until the sugar is dissolved.
• Fill the rest of the glass with ice.
• Top off with 7-Up.
• Add a garnish of an orange slice with a cherry or two.

Steve prefers Whiskey Old Fashioned Sweets with olives.  That works too, but a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet is very Wisconsin.  Wisconsin in a glass.  It makes you want to grill up some brats---in beer.