Enchanted Orchard (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Now we are getting into those thoroughly fall-style cocktails with apple cinnamon flavors. I'm going to be going in this direction for several weeks, each post being progressively more autumnal. 

This cocktail is unusual among its brethren in having pisco be the main ingredients. Yes there is apple cinnamon and spice, but the pisco is very neutral and yet still a fruit brandy spirit. I like the addition of pineapple juice and applejack to produce an exotic apple taste without there being any fresh apple juice present. All in all, this is a chameleon of a cocktail. As soon as you think you have it figured out, the Benedictine  or the pineapple juice or honey snap your taste buds in a different direction. 

• 1 1/2 oz. pisco (Capel used)
• 1/2 oz. calvados (Laird's applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. Benedictine
• 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. acacia honey syrup
• 1 cinnamon stick garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double rocks glass with one large ice cube. Garnish with the cinnamon stick.

Poire Man's Cobbler (Death & Co. Recipe)

This little bon mot of a drink is a Pear Cobbler (a type of sweetened brandy cocktail on crushed ice). The joke comes from Poire (French for pear), which is used in the garnish and muddled into the spirits. It is one of the better Cobblers out there (keeping in mind that there are some sub-par Port and Sherry Cobblers fit only for consumption on winter holidays and even then in the privacy of your own home.

Peychaud's and Benedictine take this drink in a fun, spicy direction. But apple brandy is the main ingredient that thrusts the pear juice into relief. I don't have Calvados, but Laird's Applejack 86 is more than up to the task.

• 2 oz. Busnel VSOP Calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/4 ripe Bartlett pear, cubed
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine, 
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• 1 pear slice

Muddle the cubed pear in the shaker, then add the remining liquid ingredients and ice and shake. Strain over crushed ice in an Old Fashioned glass and garnish with the pear slice. 

 

Apple & Custard

 

This is a simple idea that really hits the spot on winter nights. It stands to reason that apple flavors go great with custard in this dessert drink stand-in for the typical eggnog. 

Advocaat is a Dutch traditional egg and vanilla spirit that is sweet and creamy, even though there is no dairy added. The richness comes from egg yolks which are cooked with sugar and brandy into a stable liqueur. This recipe pairs that with distilled apple cider in the form of calvados, apple brandy or applejack. Most apple brandies, like Calvados, lose a lot of the apple flavor in distilling and aging and leave you with something that tastes like expensive brandy. Laird's Applejack 86 has enough real apple flavor to not require any apple schnapps (which taste like fresh apples, not baked apples). I avoid American schnapps because of the fake flavoring that always tastes like candy and not even close to real fruit. I've found that with Applejack 86, you don't need to add schnapps.

My homemade advocaat also has a ton of vanilla in it, so I omitted vanilla syrup from the recipe and just used a splash of simple. You can easily add vanilla extract to any simple syrup and get similar results.

• 2 oz. advocaat (homemade used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. apple schnapps (omitted above)
• 1/4 oz. vanilla syrup (simple syrup used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Princess Marina

 

This classy cocktail is named after the princess of Greece and Denmark who married England's Prince George in 1934 to become the Duchess of Kent. The drink combines Scandinavian and British spirits in a sort of homage. It is also imbued with sweet and bitter fruit flavors from apple brandy and orange spirits.

Light orange notes and citrus spices characterize this cocktail. It is rich and thick, with lots of wine and herbal traction from gin, Swedish punsch's clove and cardamon, and Dubonnet Rouge's bitter oranges. Despite that, there is a lightness with whiffs of citrus zest and sweet oranges in the triple sec. It is a royal treat and one I imagine few have had the pleasure of enjoying. 

• 1 oz. dry gin (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1/2 oz. Swedish punsch (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• orange zest twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the orange zest over the glass and drop it in.

Apple Buck

 

Another Buck cocktail that eschews the use of lime juice for lemon. At least the ginger ale is still present as well as the addition of something very special: ginger brandy.

When I taste this cocktail, I can see why these variations were made to the usual Buck recipe of spirit, lime juice and ginger ale. For one thing, applejack isn't a clear spirit like light rum, gin or vodka--the main spirits used in a Buck. Applejack tastes better with lemon than lime--or at least the acidity of lemon juice does not detract from the aged fruit spirit taste in the way that lime juice does. 

Then, since we need to sweeten the drink a little, here comes ginger brandy, which tastes great with applejack as well. Top with ginger ale and you have a spiced apple fizzy drink that started as a Buck and is now something entirely different and perhaps better. 

• 1 1/2 oz. apple brandy or calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. ginger brandy
• ginger ale (Teddy's used)
• candied ginger piece

Build drink in a Collins glass with juice and spirits. Add ice and top with ginger ale and stir gently. Garnish with the piece of ginger.

Escoffier Cocktail

 

This cocktail is named after the famous French chef school started by Auguste Escoffier. The concept is simplicity and elegance, like French cuisine. A lot of French cocktails, made for cafe sipping, are pro-forma calvados or apple brandy mixed with some aperitif wine, and this is no exception. Laird's Applejack 86 is as rich as any apple brandy. And while it doesn't have that dry French oak whiff of Normandy calvados, there's nothing wrong with mixing it with Dubonnet rouge and bittering it up with Angostura. 

• 1 1/2 oz. apple brandy or calvados (Applejack 86 used)
• 3/4 Cointreau (triple sec used)
• 3/4 Dubonnet rouge
• dash Angostura bitters
• maraschino cherry (Bada Bing cherry used)

 Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the cherry.