The 'Sconnie Faux Fashioned

There’s a bit to know about the Old Fashioned prior to making this mocktail version of the Wisconsin Old Fashioned.

An original definition of a cocktail in the early 1800s was “A stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” That formula—spirits, sugar, water, bitters—is essentially an Old Fashioned. At the time, this wasn’t a specific drink name; it was simply how cocktails were made.

By the mid-to-late 1800s, bartending had evolved and new drinks appeared such as the Martini and the Manhattan, so to differentiate patrons started to order “Whiskey cocktail, Old Fashioned” which eventually got shortened to Old Fashioned and the name stuck.

Today, in most of the country, your Old Fashioned consists of a Whiskey (Typically Rye or Bourbon), a sugar cube muddled with water (or simple syrup as it’s just easier) and aromatic bitters. This is served in a rocks glass with a big ice cube and an orange peel garnish.

Being from Wisconsin, this threw me for a loop when I started to travel. The way I was taught to make an Old Fashioned was dramatically different.

First of all, the main ingredient in the Wisconsin Old Fashioned is brandy rather than whiskey. I was told years ago that if Wisconsin were a country they would be the third largest consumer of brandy in the world. I can’t verify this but let’s just say that we like our brandy.

The reason for this, according to lore, is that brandy was more available during prohibition, and after World War II many distilleries were shut down as grain was being sent to Europe. The story goes that Wisconsin distributors found a cache of something, like 30,000 cases of really good, aged Christian Brothers brandy and they bought it up. Soon, this was the go-to spirit for its quality and taste. The Brandy Old Fashioned became synonymous with the Wisconsin Supper Club and brandy distillers (specifically Korbel) began marketing to Wisconsin to keep up this momentum.

This became a point of civic pride, in 2023 Wisconsin named the Brandy Old Fashioned the Official State Cocktail.

A true Wisconsin Old Fashioned (Which people in Wisconsin just call an Old Fashioned) is made thus:

Cut a half wheel of an orange and get a maraschino cherry and muddle them at the bottom of a rocks glass or tub. (This goes back to the days of prohibition where this muddled mixture was there to help cut the taste of bad booze).

Add a sugar cube and soak with bitters. Muddle this in with the cherry orange mixture.

Add 1 ½ half Oz. of brandy (if you’re not in Wisconsin and brandy is scarce you can use cognac as it is a brandy, but quite pricey).

Stir this mixture, add Ice and fill with the “wash” (soda).

• For “sweet” use lemon lime (Sprite, 7Up, etc.)
• For “sour” use grapefruit soda (Squirt, Jarritos Grapefruit etc.)
• For a “press” use ½ and ½ sweet and club soda

If you are in a northern Wisconsin supper club and order “an Old Fashioned” you are going to get a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet as described above. To differentiate you would call out Bourbon Old Fashioned Sour for instance. Those two are the most common, but you can mix and match depending on your taste. My wife will usually drink a Bourbon Old Fashioned Press to cut some of the sweetness of the drink.

Given the variety of the flavor profiles in the Wisconsin Old Fashioned, it lends itself to a mocktail quite easily. Without too much trouble I was able to mirror the flavor of the Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet in just a few tries.

If you go the route of doing store bought non-alcoholic spirits, a word of caution, bitters contain alcohol, quite a bit actually. Angostora bitters have a higher proof (alcohol content) than Korbel brandy for example. They make non-alcoholic bitters so keep a sharp eye out.

My recipe relies on neither NA brandy nor NA bitters. To get the same taste I use a mixture of Rooibos Iced Tea and Chai Iced Tea. For the lazy of you out there (raises hand) I have found you can buy a Rooibos Chai Tea combo.

You may have noticed I left the sugar cube / simple syrup out of my recipe. You can add those if you like but I was trying to avoid this being too sweet. The lemon lime soda and cherry juice does the trick for me.

Again, this Sconnie Faux Fashioned mimics the Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet. A change of the soda can make this into a sour, press, or soda if you’d like.