TAPT Version 71.0 Kent Branstetter never votes for an incumbent

[PossibleCabbage]

I have nothing against the Brandy Old Fashioned (not my favorite, but w/e) but the thing that bugs me is people who are pro-wisconsin who are like campaigning for it, as though there's not a whole world of great cocktails out there.  Like MFer, the Grasshopper is the supper club cocktail because it's dessert in a glass.

I sort of thing that most people just attach to one or two cocktails and never bother to learn anything about cocktail culture or mixology theory.

Like I don't care if it's your favorite drink, but don't tell me it's the only good cocktail.  Like if i had to stick to one mixed drink for the rest of my life I'd go with a Mai Tai, or a Corpse Reviver #2, or a Last Word or something.

[ChaRisMa]

18 hours ago, Refugee said:

My uncle, who was a carpenter in Milwaukee at the time, would help the Bartolotta family set up all of the fireworks for the various lakefront festivals including the Big Bang. He did a few night setting them off. Even a few decades ago they had some electronic means of ignition. But he told me the training mainly consisted of preparing yourself for how fast the fuses ran. In a blink of an eye a several foot fuse was gone.  You had to get used to it to be ready for show time. I’m assuming today things are much less analog and preprogrammed but at the time there was still a human element of coordinating a crew to get the fireworks up in concert. 

The Bartolotta family donated a solid 10 years of fireworks shows for the fundraiser my job puts on annually. Wolverine Firworks bought them out but still donate the fireworks. Very nice family. Sad.

[Arthur Penske]

9 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said:

I have nothing against the Brandy Old Fashioned (not my favorite, but w/e) but the thing that bugs me is people who are pro-wisconsin who are like campaigning for it, as though there's not a whole world of great cocktails out there.  Like MFer, the Grasshopper is the supper club cocktail because it's dessert in a glass.

I sort of thing that most people just attach to one or two cocktails and never bother to learn anything about cocktail culture or mixology theory.

Like I don't care if it's your favorite drink, but don't tell me it's the only good cocktail.  Like if i had to stick to one mixed drink for the rest of my life I'd go with a Mai Tai, or a Corpse Reviver #2, or a Last Word or something.

I’d rather drink it neat than with all the sugar in a diabetes Wisconsin style Old Fashioned. 
 

 

[PossibleCabbage]

I think where the Brandy Old Fashioned goes wrong is that it they put pop in it for some reason.

For some history, the reason there's a cocktail called "Old Fashioned" is that back in the day, on the frontier of the US the only booze that you could get your hands on was essentially rotgut.  So if you ordered whiskey in the sort of bar a gunfighter might visit, the normal way to serve it was "with sugar and bitters to make it palatable"   Eventually civilization moved west, so better stuff became available, but some people liked the way it used to be so would order whiskey "old fashioned".  This is probably the original cocktail.

Over time people figured out that the essential oils from an orange peel goes very well with this, and that cutting whiskey with water makes it taste better, which is more or less the modern old fashioned. 

But the basic things wrong with the brandy old fashioned are:

-If you're just going to put pop in it, you didn't need sugar to begin with.
- The thing you want to muddle is the orange *peel* to express the essential oils, mashed fruit does not belong in an old fashioned, or any cocktail really- nobody wants to pick fruit pulp out of their teeth after drinking a cocktail.
- If you're going to put a carbonated mixer in there, you really want a highball glass to make the carbonation matter.

Like a brandy highball with a twist of orange and some angostura bitters and a cherry garnish is a better version of this.

Edited July 9 by PossibleCabbage

[Mr Bad Example]

21 hours ago, ChaRisMa said:

That was so cool but the moment it ended I was devastated for whomever paid for that. Even if they got it for costs of materials someone has to risk their limbs putting it together.

Yeah they didn't necessarily get what they were purchasing....

 

.... But on the other hand, I feel like the story is now considered epic, and in every clip I've seen of it you can hear someone going "that was AWESOME" 

 

So even though it wasn't the desired outcome, it was hardly a disastrous event

[squire12]

1 hour ago, PossibleCabbage said:

The thing you want to muddle is the orange *peel* to express the essential oils, mashed fruit does not belong in an old fashioned, or any cocktail really- nobody wants to pick fruit pulp out of their teeth after drinking a cocktail.

Look at this guy bragging about his " no gaps between his ******* teeth cocktail drinking piehole"

[Uffdaswede]

2 hours ago, Arthur Penske said:

I love Wisconsin and most things Wisconsin, but man your “ old fashioned” there are trash. Way too sweet

 

 

 

Muddled sugar and bitters are part of the recipe. Sweet soda is what pushes it too far. Bartending back in the day there were customers who ordered it “press”, which meant half sweet soda and half club soda (or seltzer, as some say). That seems about right. I usually order gin with lime or whiskey on ice. I do think old fashioneds taste kind of yummy, but I suppose the fact that they are very sweet is why I don’t care to order them that often. 

[wgbeethree]

If you can get your hands on mexican manufactured soda for your old fashions it makes a WORLD of difference. The sugar vs. the high fructose corn syrup changes everything. HFCS pretty much ruins everything it touches. There's literally nothing that tastes better with HFCS than real sugar.

The whole fat vs. sugar conspiracy BTW was an actual factual conspiracy and we of course came out of it with the absolute worst for us but most profitable products.  

[Arthur Penske]

12 hours ago, Uffdaswede said:

Muddled sugar and bitters are part of the recipe. Sweet soda is what pushes it too far. Bartending back in the day there were customers who ordered it “press”, which meant half sweet soda and half club soda (or seltzer, as some say). That seems about right. I usually order gin with lime or whiskey on ice. I do think old fashioneds taste kind of yummy, but I suppose the fact that they are very sweet is why I don’t care to order them that often. 

 

10 hours ago, wgbeethree said:

If you can get your hands on mexican manufactured soda for your old fashions it makes a WORLD of difference. The sugar vs. the high fructose corn syrup changes everything. HFCS pretty much ruins everything it touches. There's literally nothing that tastes better with HFCS than real sugar.

The whole fat vs. sugar conspiracy BTW was an actual factual conspiracy and we of course came out of it with the absolute worst for us but most profitable products.  

Hey to each their own, but an old fashioned with no pop/soda at all is the way to go for me. Whiskey, Bitters, a little simple syrup and an orange twist/cherry is perfect.

On the gin note from @Uffdaswede, have you tried Monkey 47 gin? The Germans nailed that one.

Edited July 9 by Arthur Penske

[wgbeethree]

18 minutes ago, Arthur Penske said:

Hey to each their own, but an old fashioned with no pop/soda at all is the way to go for me. Whiskey, Bitters, a little simple syrup and an orange slice/cherry is perfect

Absolutely to each their own, I don't even like a Wisconsin style old fashioned that much at all to be honest, but that's kinda like being in Chicago and liking "pizza" but with a thinner crust and cheese on top or liking "chilli" in Cincinnati but without the noodles and cinnamon or Carolina/KC/Texas BBQ or SE asian vs. Indian curry. You're just talking similarly named but "completely different" things with the regional variations at some point. 

[Packerraymond]

Any slander of the brandy old-fashioned sweet will not be tolerated. Now I do not muddle fruit or add a sugar cube, but if you find the mix to be too sweet, lucky for you just add more bitters and booze. 

I'm mostly a rum or bourbon neat guy, only two cocktails I need in life are the gin & tonic and brandy old-fashioned. 

[ThatJerkDave]

10 hours ago, wgbeethree said:

If you can get your hands on mexican manufactured soda for your old fashions it makes a WORLD of difference. The sugar vs. the high fructose corn syrup changes everything. HFCS pretty much ruins everything it touches. There's literally nothing that tastes better with HFCS than real sugar.

The whole fat vs. sugar conspiracy BTW was an actual factual conspiracy and we of course came out of it with the absolute worst for us but most profitable products.  

Pepsi now makes a cane sugar soda.  It is super good.  I also love the Cokes that I get at Mexican restaurants.  I will drink 2 or 3.  They are always like it isn't a free refill, and I am like, I don't care.  I love sugar.   

[Refugee]

12 hours ago, Uffdaswede said:

Muddled sugar and bitters are part of the recipe. Sweet soda is what pushes it too far. Bartending back in the day there were customers who ordered it “press”, which meant half sweet soda and half club soda (or seltzer, as some say). That seems about right. I usually order gin with lime or whiskey on ice. I do think old fashioneds taste kind of yummy, but I suppose the fact that they are very sweet is why I don’t care to order them that often. 

I'm generally an up or on the rocks guy wth my liquor.  If I am back in WI, I do get a BOF every now and then for nostalgia's sake or because I'm with first timers. I usually order it press with squirt. Still way too sweet and I prefer a traditional OF with whiskey but I would never say that out loud.

Now if you really want a Wisconsin baptism, head over to Washington Island and get a straight shot of Angostura bitters.

[wgbeethree]

15 minutes ago, Refugee said:

Now if you really want a Wisconsin baptism, head over to Washington Island and get a straight shot of Angostura bitters.

Is that supposed to be like a "hangover cure", a "prove you can/mess with the new guy" drink, or do people actually try to pretend they like it?

[Packerraymond]

28 minutes ago, Refugee said:

Now if you really want a Wisconsin baptism, head over to Washington Island and get a straight shot of Angostura bitters.

Can't be any worse than Malort.