Them Apples
Fall is now upon us. The leaves are starting to change colors, and the orchards are being filled with apples. To me, apples and apple cider are always the real taste of fall. When developing the cocktail list last year, I created an apple cider shrub. I love the sweet and sour flavor a shrub has, and it honestly tastes like fall with cinnamon, cloves, and star anise flavors infused throughout the shrub. Mixed with Laird’s Applejack makes the perfect fall cocktail.
Applejack is often known as America’s first spirit. According to their family ledger, the Laird’s family created their first batch of Applejack in New Jersey in 1698 with the first commercial transaction in 1780. Most people describe applejack as an apple whiskey, but it is a blend of 35 % apple brandy and 65% neutral grain spirit in actuality. The applejack has a robust fresh apple aroma and flavor.
To incorporate apple cider into the cocktail, I decided to create a shrub. A shrub is a sweet-sour mixture used in cocktails. To start making the shrub, I took equal parts of local apple cider and sugar and placed them in a small saucepot. To that pot, I added traditional fall flavors, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and cloves. Over medium heat, I brought the mixture to a simmer while stirring to dissolve the sugar. I removed the pot from the heat and allowed the apple cider syrup to cool with the spices.
Once the spices were infused, and the syrup cooled, I strained the syrup to remove the spices and added a mixture of apple cider vinegar and rice wine vinegar. The amount of vinegar was equal to the amount of apple cider. I used a mix of apple cider vinegar and rice wine vinegar because I find that apple cider vinegar is more potent with acidity than rice wine vinegar. Even with the apple cider vinegar’s strong flavor, I wanted to use it a little bit because of having notes of apples to complement the apple cider.
Now the shrub has some sweetness to it, but I found that a little more sweetness was needed when I tested the cocktail. To fix this, I created a simple cinnamon syrup. The cinnamon syrup is straightforward but adds such a deep punch of fall flavor. To make the cinnamon simple syrup, I will place equal parts of sugar and water in a saucepot. I add a few cinnamon sticks as well. I bring the mixture to a simmer and stir to ensure all of the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, I remove the syrup from the heat and infuse it for about 15 minutes. The finished syrup has a strong cinnamon flavor with almost a copper color with cinnamon specks floating throughout the fairly clear syrup. I love to have this syrup on hand during the fall and winter months because it allows you to add that warming cinnamon flavor to any drink that wants a “fall” flavor.
For an extra depth of flavor, I added a dash of allspice bitters to the cocktail. These are entirely optional for the cocktail, but it truly does change the flavor. I always think of bitters as the salt and pepper of a cocktail, where they enhance a drink such as salt and pepper enhances a dish. Allspice is a small brown sphere from the evergreen pimiento tree, native to the West Indies and South America. The spice is also known as Jamacia pepper, as Jamaica provides most of the spice’s supply. The spice’s flavor is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, giving the spice the name allspice.
I took a handful of allspice berries and toasted them in a small saute pan until the spice was fragrant to make the bitters. I removed them from the pan and placed them into an airtight container. There I added a little orange zest to help with brightness and elevate the bitters’ flavor profile. I used Rittenhouse rye for the spirit to infuse and used gentian root for my bittering agent. Once I placed everything into the container, I gave a fair shake and allowed the mixture to infuse for 7-10 days. Once the bitters had a strong spice flavor and a bitter finish, I strained the mixture and stored in small bitter bottles.
To make Them Apples, I started pouring 1 ¾ oz. of Lairds Applejack into a Boston shaker. I added 1 oz. of the apple shrub and ¾ oz. of the cinnamon simple as well. A small splash of lemon juice and 2 dashes of the allspice bitters were added as well. I filled the shaker with ice and then sealed the shaker. I gave the shaker a fair shake for about 30 seconds till the shaker was cold and started to frost over. I strained the cocktail over some fresh ice cubes in a rocks glasses. For the garnish, I thinly sliced some local apples. I gathered three of the slices and fanned them out. To secure the apple slices together, I used a clove piercing the apples from the bottom.
The finished cocktail had a strong apple taste, warm fall spices in the background, and darker brandy notes. Scents of cinnamon and cloves perfumed the cocktail with fresh apple aroma as well. The flavor of the cocktail begins with a pleasantly bright acidity that the shrub provides, which then turns into sweetness from the cinnamon syrup. The flavor lingers on the palate as you contain to get tastes of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and apple.
This cocktail finds a way to combine all of my favorite flavors of fall into one drink. The apple cider shrub and the cinnamon simple syrup helps give any beverage those fall flavors of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. The applejack has those darker caramel-like flavors but still freshness from the apple brandy used in the blend.
Them Apples
Yields 1 cocktail
1 ¾ oz. Laird’s Applejack
1 oz. Apple Cider Shrub (recipe down below)
¾ oz. Cinnamon simple syrup (recipe down below)
¼ oz. lemon juice
2 dashes Allspice Bitters ( recipe down below and can be omitted)
Method:
In the small part of a Boston shaker, pour applejack, shrub, simple syrup. Lemon juice and bitters into it.
Fill with ice and seal the Boston shaker with the other half.
Shake for about 30 seconds. The shaker will begin to frost slightly and be cold to the touch.
Open the shaker by applying force with the heel of your hand to the side of the shaker.
Stain the cocktail with a hawthorn strainer into a rocks glass with fresh rocks(ice)
To garnish, cut the apple into quarters around the core. Thinly slice an apple with a mandolin to thin uniformed apple slices.
Stack three of the apple slices together and pin with a clove.
Now that the apples are secured, you can fan the apples out and place them on the cocktail.
Apple Cider Shrub
Yields 12 oz.
4 oz. Apple Cider
4 oz. Sugar
2 oz. apple cider vinegar
2 oz. Rice wine vinegar
1 ea. Cinnamon stick
1 ea. Cloves
1 ea. Star anise
Method:
In a saucepot, combine apple cider, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves, and star anise
Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil while stirring to ensure that the sugar is fully dissolved.
Once the mixture has boiled, remove from heat and allow the spices to steep for about 15 minutes.
Strain the spices from the syrup base and add both types of vinegar to the cooled syrup to creat the shrub.
Store the shrub in an airtight container and the refrigerator.
Cinnamon Simple Syrup
Yields 16 oz.
8 oz. Sugar
8 oz. Water
4 ea. Cinnamon sticks
Method:
In a sauce, pot combine all of the ingredients
Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil while stirring to ensure that the sugar is fully dissolved.
Remove from heat and all for the cinnamon sticks to infuse for about 15 minutes.
There should be a strong cinnamon flavor
Strain the cinnamon sticks from the simple syrup
Store in an airtight container and the refrigerator.
All Spice Bitters
Yields 10z.
10 oz. Rittenhouse Rye
1 ea. Orange, zested
1 palm full Allspice
½ tsp. Gentian root
Method:
In a saute pan toast the allspice till aromatic
In an airtight container combine all of the ingredients
Allow for the bitters to infuse for 7 to 10 days
The finished product should have a strong allspice flavor and a pleasant bitterness.
Strain the mixture and store in an airtight container or bitter bottles.