An Old Fashioned Tale
This one is for you local kids.
As we re-confirmed two weeks ago in our Craft Beer Boom post, Wisconsin likes to drink. And as such, we have some very particular drinks that Wisconsin in known for.
For example, if you’re from the state or have spent a lot of time here, you know of Spotted Cow and Prairie Fumé. Even if they’re not your favorite, you know them and you love them.
But if you’re not from Wisconsin, the thing you probably still know (besides that Miller got its start here) is that the Old Fashioned is Wisconsin’s craft cocktail of choice.
But that’s an understatement; the brandy Old Fashioned - sweet or sour - is a tradition, a habit, a culture.
But why a brandy Old Fashioned specifically? And why an Old Fashioned to begin with?
Brandy Beginnings
There are actually two origin stories here, one that can’t really be confirmed but is readily told and one that is much more practical. Both of these stories are told in the book Wisconsin Cocktails by Jeanette Hurt, which goes into the recipes, traditions, and histories of Wisconsin-specific cocktails.
The first story is in 1893, and Chicago was hosting the World's Columbian Exposition. It was one of the World Fairs, which in this era ran between 1851 and 1938, and was so named and specifically held that year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the new world. (Cringy I must admit, but we’ll acknowledge it here as that’s the “why” behind the title.)
This World’s Fair was apparently the first time for many new commodities on the market to make their big splash, including Pabst Beer, Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix, and Korbel brothers’ brandy.
Since Chicago is so close to Wisconsin, a bunch of German-heritage Wisconsinites made their way down to the fairgrounds and fell in love with the Czechoslovak brothers’ brandy. The fact they were German-heritage Wisconsinites actually is an important tidbit there too, because German’s were already particularly fond of brandy, so it was not a hard sell to them.
Now, even though Korbel brandy was founded in 1882 - which makes sense time-wise - and was definitely showcased at the Chicago World’s Fair, author Jeanette Hurt thinks there are additional, more practical economic and political reasonings for brandy being so big.
This additional reasoning centers on both World War II and prohibition in the U.S. During the war, even though prohibition was over, bourbon was rationed and brandy was not, so brandy naturally become more popular as you could get it more easily.
Plus, due to those two events happening one right after the other in decades, there was a lot of bad alcohol in general in the U.S. The alcohol was just of terrible quality, and Hurt says the whiskey was particularly bad, which is of course the alcohol of choice for classic old fashioneds.
Turns out that during that time some Wisconsin liquor distributors found a cache of ~30,000 cases of Christian Brothers brandy. And if you could have a cocktail with either really bad “whiskey” or delicious award-winning brand, which would you want to drink?
Liquor companies, distributors, and industry advertisers took notice of the success brand had in Wisconsin, and started to market the hell out of it here.
From there it’s just the classic story of: we’re all a slave to good marketing. Or the other classic story of stubborn, traditional Wisconsinites deciding they like something and then never changing.
You can choose which story suits you best there.
The Old Fashioned
But why Old Fashioneds as the cocktail of choice? It’s not like other states don’t drink them - it is a ‘classic cocktail’ after all. So why are they SO big here in Wisconsin.
Well, there’s not particularly a good story behind this one, but it does yet again nod back to prohibition.
We all know that prohibition did not actually stop alcohol from being consumed in the U.S., it just unregulated it. So the booze that was out for consumption during that time was bad: bad tasting and bad for your health.
In order to cover up the taste of the horrible whisky of the time, folks started first muddling sugar, bitters, and fruit (cherries being most prevalent in the state) in their glasses. Adding soda after was another way to add additional sugar and flavor.
Between that and cocktails in general being very popular during this time, you have an Old Fashioned boom.
And again, us Wisconsinites have just stuck with it.
Weekly Adventure
Lean into your Wisconsin side! This week’s task is to have yourself a good ol’ brandy old fashioned and raise your glass to the Wisconsinites of old.
Cheers,
Molly
Resources
https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/wisconsin-brandy