'Tis the season.....for Applejack

'Tis the season for a few cocktail recipes utilizing Applejack....that most American of beverages.

A bit of background:

Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, popular in the American colonial period.

Applejack was historically made by concentrating hard cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation or by true evaporative distillation. The term applejack derives from jacking, a term for freeze distillation. The modern product sold as applejack is no longer produced using this traditional process.

Freeze distillation is a low-infrastructure mode of production compared to evaporation distillation. Apples and applejack have historically been easy to produce in small quantities. Hard apple cider was an important drink in the colonial and early years of the United States, particularly in areas without access to clean water, but was often considered insufficiently palatable and bulky to store. Rather than consume an alcoholic fruit beer, the cider harvested in the fall was often separated in the winter via freeze distillation, by leaving it outside and periodically removing the frozen chunks of softer cider to a separate container, for consumption or further fermentation. From the fermented juice, with an alcohol content of less than 10%, the concentrated result contains 30-40% alcohol, is slightly sweet and usually tastes and smells of apples. However, freeze distilling concentrates all of the alcohol by-products of fermentation – including methanol and fusel alcohols as well as ethanol. Distillation by evaporation can separate these since they have different boiling points. With easy availability of grain, metal stills, clean water, and eventually pasteurization starting in the mid 19th century, cider and applejack were gradually displaced by other beverages and liquors. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, traditional applejack acquired a stigma as a result of its association with the older production process, and was less economical to produce than some alternatives.

In New Jersey, applejack was used as currency to pay road construction crews during the colonial period. A slang expression for the beverage was Jersey Lightning.

And now....a few traditional, and a few newer recipes.......

On to the cocktails!!

Apple Jack Cocktail

1 Dash Bitters

1/2 Italian Vermouth
1/2 Applejack

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass

Jack Rose
 

3 parts applejack

2 parts lemon or lime juice

2 dashes grenadine
 

Traditionally shaken into a chilled glass, garnished, and served straight up.

 Warday’s

1/3 Italian  vermouth
1/3 dry gin
1/3 applejack
1 tsp. Chartreuse

Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

Star cocktail No. 2

1/2 applejack
1/2 dry gin
1 tsp grapefruit juice
1 dash Italian vermouth
1 dash French vermouth

Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

 Savoy Tango

1/2 sloe gin
1/2 applejack

Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

Liberty

1/3 rum

1/3 applejack

1 dash syrup

Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

 Jack in the box

1/2 applejack
1/2 pineapple juice
dash bitters

Shake with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

Honeymoon

1/3 Benedictine
1/3 Applejack
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 dashes curacao

Shake with cracked ice strain into cocktail glass

Dempsey Cocktail

1/2 oz dry gin
1/2  oz applejack
2 dashes absinthe

Shake well with ice, strain into cocktail glass.

Castle Dip Cocktail

1 1/2   oz   Applejack
1 1/2   oz   Creme De Menthe (White)

2   tsp   Absinthe
 

Combine ingredients in shaker glass. Fill up with ice.  Stir 'til cold.  Strain into chilled cup.

Block and Fall Cocktail

1/6 Anisette
1/3 Applejack
1/3 Apricot liqueur
1/3 Cointreau

Shake  well and strain into cocktail glass.

Bolero

1 oz.  Dark rum
1/4 oz. applejack
2 dashes Sweet Vermouth

Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass

Stone Fence

 3 oz Applejack
 3-4 dashes bitters
 Apple Cider

Fill tall glass or mug with ice, add Applejack and bitters and stir, then fill glass with Apple Cider.


The Big Apple (Applejack Manhattan or Marconi Wireless)

 1 1/2 oz applejack 

 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
 2 dashes  Bitters (orange bitters for the Marconi)

 Stir with small ice, strain and garnish with a boozy cherry. (soaked in rye, bourbon, brandy or what have you).

Applejack Old Fashioned
 

2 oz applejack

2 dashes bitters

1 barspoon (or to taste) real maple syrup

 Stir and serve in a rocks glass with a big ice chunk. Rim glass and garnish with a lemon twist.


Applejack Highball

 2 oz. Applejack
 1 lump (cube) of ice

Put in 8 oz. highball glass and fill with ginger ale or club soda. You may garnish with a lemon twist.

Applejack Rickey

 1 1/2 oz. Applejack
  juice of 1/2 of a lime (about 3/4 oz.)
 1 lump of ice

Pour in 8 oz. highball glass, and top with club soda. Garnish with spent lime hull.

Applejack Sour recipe

2 oz Applejack
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 splash soda water

Pour the brandy, lemon juice and sugar into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well, and strain into a highball glass. Top with soda water, garnish with a lemon wedge, and serve.

Barton Special


1/4 Applejack
1/4 Scotch Whisky
1/2 Dry Gin.

Shake (it would be proper to stir, but it really probably doesn’t matter) well and strain into cocktail glass

Apple Cart

1 oz applejack
3/4 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Pour the apple brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice into an old-fashioned (preferably chilled) glass half-filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve.

 
The Apple Jack Rabbit Cocktail

1 1/2 oz  of Applejack. 
 Juice of 1 Lemon. (1 oz)
 Juice of 1 Orange. (2 oz Fresh Orange Juice) 
1 1/2 oz Maple Syrup
 
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

OR

1 1/2 oz applejack
3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz Fresh Orange Juice
1/2 oz Maple Syrup

Harvard Cooler
 
1 tablespoon sugar syrup 
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
3 ounces applejack 
3 or 4 ice cubes 
Club soda

Combine all ingredients except the soda in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a 12-ounce collins glass and fill with soda.....OOOOoooo....Go, Crimson, Go!! ;)