Sweet Tea Old Fashioned co*cktail (2024)

Sweet Tea Old Fashioned co*cktail: An Old Fashioned co*cktail, with a twist! This classic co*cktail has been given a swanky southern makeover with the addition of sweet tea.

Friends, you are in for a treat, because my hubby Lieutenant Dan, is sharing one of his locally famous co*cktails today…

Lt Dan: My great grandmother is the person who taught me to drink. (Bet you don’t hear that every day!) This post, in some strange way, will tie her and Ryan Gosling together. Seriously.

Grandma Rosie was born sometime around 1910, I think.

She was a super cool cat; one of my most favorite people. She passed away a few years ago at 97 years young, but lived those years to the fullest. I have extremely fond memories of spending time with her, especially the last 20 years of her life.

Grandma Rosie and my great grandfather came to America on the boat. They moved here from Hungary and started a life together. In her 20s and 30s she was an executive secretary (administrative assistant for you politically correct types) for the Studebaker Company. She would weave me exciting tales of train rides to Chicago, swing dancing with my great grandfather, and life in general during those times.

What I remember most is how she talked about co*cktails – especially the classics.

Martini lunches, Manhattan’s at the dance club, Gimlets at home on the weekend – this was part of the culture during those times.

My earliest memory of Grandma Rosie was her insistence of making me a Shirley Temple every time I visited her house when I was younger. The Shirley Temple’s grew into Martini’s when I turned 18 and Grandma Rosie insisted that I know how to make a “proper classic co*cktail”. My love of co*cktails was born at that moment. I’m not sure if it was the co*cktails themselves, or the wonderful memory of Grandma Rosie.

She was a stickler for the classics and that they were always prepared properly.

After college and married, I still visited Grandma Rosie every time I went North to see my family. We would go on a date to a little Mexican restaurant we both enjoyed. We would drink margaritas, eat quesadillas, and she would tell stories about the old times, always interjecting a “new” classic co*cktail recipe for me.

So this month’s co*cktail with Lieutenant Dan is a spin on the classic Old Fashioned co*cktail.

While Mrs. Spicy and I were watching the movie “Crazy, Stupid, Love” a few months ago, I noticed Ryan Gosling making a co*cktail I actually was not familiar with. It was an Old Fashioned co*cktail with bourbon, orange, and sugar cubes, and it looked awesome.

I proceeded to test it at home, trying different bourbons each time. I even tried one at a restaurant in Raleigh, NC that had bacon infused bourbon. (Which was awesome by the way.) Yet now that we are officially southerners, I thought I would put a little southern spin on this great classic.

So without further ado – I give you the Sweet Tea Old Fashioned co*cktail. I’ll be drinking one on my porch swing, thinking of Grandma Rosie…

Enjoy!