Brandy Old Fashioned Recipe

The Brandy Old Fashioned is a variation of the classic Old Fashioned that starts with muddled sugar, orange, and maraschino cherries, is combined with brandy and Angostura bitters, and topped with soda. While this mutation of the original cocktail might seem blasphemous to those trained to mix the classics, the Brandy Old Fashioned is, without question, the official cocktail of Wisconsin.

The use of brandy as the base spirit is believed to be tied to the introduction of Korbel California brandy to the Midwest at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The brandy caught on with Wisconsin’s German immigrant community and became a fixture in homes and bars throughout the state. Today, Wisconsin accounts for a massive share of Korbel brandy sales.

The drink is a fixture in Wisconsin’s traditional taverns and supper clubs, where it is often called an “Old Fashioned.” Of course, if you order one, the bartender’s next question will be whether you want your drink sweet (lemon-lime soda), sour (Squirt), or press (half soda, half club.) Whichever you choose, the Brandy Old Fashioned is an indelible part of Wisconsin’s vibrant drinking culture.

Why the Brandy Old Fashioned works

The Brandy Old Fashioned emphatically flaunts every single rule for balancing a cocktail. It’s important to remember that the drink isn’t meant to be refined, it’s meant to be approachable and sessionable; something anyone can enjoy in a social setting like a supper club. Its existence also makes more sense with a little cocktail history context. 

Technically, the drink is still an Old Fashioned. An Old Fashioned cocktail is, by definition, any base spirit with sugar, aromatic bitters, and ice or water for chilling and dilution.

The technique of muddling a maraschino cherry and a slice of orange with sugar is an old tradition that was popularized during Prohibition to mask the less desirable flavors of homemade gin and bootlegged whiskey. 

The addition of a splash of soda, sweetened or not, nearly puts the drink into the realm of a highball. Guests almost always have a choice of how they prefer their Brandy Old Fashioned topped, so if an artificially sweetened soda seems like overkill, you can opt for club soda instead.