About this blog

The Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet is a uniquely Wisconsin drink.  It typically consists of fruit (orange and maraschino cherry) mulled with sugar and bitters (Angastura), brandy (usually Korbel) and a lemon / lime softdrink (Sprite or 7-Up) and a splash of cherry juice or grenadine.  

Vicki has been drinking these since she was in college in the early 80's, typically with a Friday night fish fry.  Unaware that this was the Wisconsin version of the standard Old Fashioned, she once ordered one in New York City only to be met with a "what's that?" It was then that she first learned that this may be a regional drink and did some research (she's a librarian).  There are some pretty decent articles about the history of the Wisconsin version of this drink, so we won't re-hash that here. Somehow knowing that drinking a brandy old fashioned along with your Friday night fish fry was a bona fide Wisconsin tradition, makes doing so even more appealing and Vicki and Steve often indulge.  But wait! Not every Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet is created equally.  We are now on a quest to find the perfect versions and have developed a 5 point system to rate the drinks.

Steve (he's an engineer) wants to plot the distance away from Wisconsin that you are still able to ask and receive a BOFS without getting a questioning look.  He wants to visit bars in a concentric circle starting in Evansville and working our way throughout Wisconsin and into the neighboring states.

The purpose of this blog is to document our journey to finding the perfect BOFS.