6 Cocktails That Will Be the Apple of Your Eye This Season

courtesy Copper & Kings

courtesy Copper & Kings

The autumn fruit overtaking farm stands is finding its way into the most delicious drinks

If you just can’t resist drinking a cold glass of freshly-pressed cider or sinking your teeth into a crunchy gala or Granny Smith this time of year, read on. Autumn’s favorite produce ingredient for pies, tarts and crumbles is also a secret ingredient in cocktails via brandies, bitters, juice and vinegar. How do you like them apples? Stirred or shaken, in crisp sweater weather, that’s how. 

Apple Sazerac

Recipe courtesy of Copper & Kings, Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville, Kentucky distillery’s latest release is distilled from apple wine fermented with freshly-pressed juice in Vendome American copper pot stills, unoaked and non-chill filtered for a richer body and mouthfeel and natural color and flavor. “This is a very clean, fresh expression [with] a beautiful natural apple nose, and is nicely structured with a good backbone,” says says master distiller Brandon O’Daniel. “It’s an easy drinker even at 92 proof and works just great in a highball, a classic cocktail or simply on the rocks--it’s very, very versatile.” Here it stands in for the traditional rye whiskey in the New Orleans cocktail.

Pour a little absinthe into a rocks glass, swirl to coat and pour out the excess. Add the first four ingredients to a cocktail glass, add ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into the prepared glass, express the lemon peel and use it for a garnish.

photo by Clark Cabus

photo by Clark Cabus

Fruits of Labor

Recipe courtesy of Scott Jenkins, Director of Beverage, HIDE, Dallas, Texas

Jenkins’ inspiration for this autumnal tipple is the philosophy of hard work yielding bountiful rewards, including his journey in creating cocktails. He says spiced apple bitters do double duty both as enhancing the brandy with light and deep apple notes, and complementing bourbon’s notes of cinnamon, clove and allspice. “It’s great for the fall because of the warm baking spice flavors, much like a warm cobbler or pie.”

courtesy MiniBar Hollywood

courtesy MiniBar Hollywood

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over a single cube and garnish with the dehydrated apple slice.

Apple Press Cocktail

Recipe courtesy of Jeremy Allen, General Manager and Lead Bartender, MiniBar Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

Allen is a fan of what he calls “cannibal cocktails”—drinks that have multiple iterations of a fruit or ingredient and the liquor is a version of the mixer. This one gets a one-two-three punch of apple juice, apple cider vinegar and apple brandy. “We get closer to the complete 360 degree of apple taste, closer to the essence, and we hopefully hit all the right spots on the palate and in the mouth, along with all the right spots in the brain,” he says. “I think it just helps to engage the brain with the senses.”

  • 1 oz. fresh apple juice

  • ½ oz. apple cider vinegar

  • 1 oz. apple brandy (we suggest Divine Distillers, silver medal winner 2019 NYISC)

  • 1 oz. bourbon

  • 2 dashes Fee Bros. Black Walnut Bitters (optional)

  • apple slice, ground star anise and ground cinnamon, for garnish

Add the first five ingredients to a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a floating apple slice and dust with the star anise and cinnamon.

photo by Nick Karlin

photo by Nick Karlin

Appletini

Recipe adapted from Paul Taylor, Beverage Manager, Columbia Room, Washington, D.C.

This drink is not as it appears. The original Appletini was made popular in the early 2000s, but Taylor admits the artificially flavored and colored sip falls flat in the modern cocktail renaissance. On Columbia Room’s four-course “Cocktails So Bad They’re Good” menu it gets an elevated reboot with apple vermouth, cognac and calvados. Instead of neon green, their version is garnished with a spherified cherry and mimics the original color, using maraschino cherry and the boozes’ natural hue. “Apples add a juicy acidity that we love to this otherwise dry, stirred, spirit-forward cocktail,” he says. “Their sweet and slightly sour flavor hugs you like a hooded sweatshirt on a crisp afternoon, letting you know that fall has arrived.”

  • 1 ½ oz. apple vermouth (instructions follow)

  • 1 oz. calvados

  • ½ oz. cognac (we suggest Courvoisier VS)

  • maraschino cherry, for garnish

  • Orange peel, for garnish

Place the cherry in the bottom of a v-shaped Martini glass and set aside. Add the apple vermouth, calvados and cognac to a cocktail glass, then add ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into the prepared glass, express the orange peel and garnish the drink with it.

For the apple vermouth:

Combine 12 oz. manzanilla sherry, 12 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth, 1 oz. orange liqueur, 2 ½ cups apple juice (clarified if available) and 1 cup simple syrup (1:1 ratio of white granulated sugar and water). Stir vigorously until everything is homogenous, and store in the refrigerator for up to a month.

courtesy Clay NYC

courtesy Clay NYC

Moonglow

Recipe courtesy of Andrea Needell Matteliano, Beverage Director, Clay, New York, NY

“The Moonglow is perfect to cozy up with after a day of fall apple picking,” Matteliano believes. “The freshness of the cider and pear brandy lighten up the smoky richness of the Scotch, and fresh ginger adds spicy warmth.” Birkir is a schnapps from Iceland created by a chef and sommelier that has a distinctive woody flavor that’s a foil for the maple, apple and citrus.

  • 1 oz. blended Scotch Whisky

  • ¾ oz. pear brandy

  • ¼ oz. Foss Birkir Birch Snaps

  • ½ oz. maple syrup

  • ¼ oz. lemon juice

  • 1 ½ oz. apple cider

  • 1 tsp. chopped ginger

  • Rosemary sprig and ginger slice, for garnish

Muddle chopped ginger and maple syrup in a cocktail glass. Add the remaining ingredients except garnish, add ice and shake until well-chilled. Double-strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and garnish with the rosemary sprig and ginger slice.

courtesy Chart House Las Vegas

courtesy Chart House Las Vegas

Tableside Torched Apple Manhattan

Recipe courtesy of Max Ennamany, Division Vice President of Beverage Operations, Chart House Seafood Restaurant at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada

Presenting and smoking this drink tableside gives the Manhattan riff a touch of spectacle. “For fall, apple and bourbon are just a heavenly combination,” Ennamany says. “Aromatizing the glass first with smoke from the apple wood smoldering brings it home.”

Add the first three ingredients to a cocktail glass, add ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain cocktail over the black cherry into a beaker if moving on to the next steps. Otherwise, strain ingredients into cocktail glass. If smoking the drink, place the apple wood chips in a cast iron skillet and torch with a low flame until smoldering. Place a rocks glass upside down over the smoldering chips for 20 seconds. Remove glass, add a large 2x2 ice cube in it and pour the cocktail into the serving glass.

Featured, CocktailsKelly Magyaricsdrinkwire, cocktails, apples, calvados, brandy, new york international spirits competition, fallComment