Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

I had a lot of fun preparing this cocktail. It requires its own special syrup made from cooked apples, which was delicious in itself and made my kitchen smell wonderful. 

What is not to like about this drink (except, perhaps, its painstaking recipe). There's fresh apple garnish, apple syrup and apple brandy--so many fall flavors wrapped into one recipe. Not everyone goes for egg white cocktails, but this is the first I've tried that showcases a spirit other than gin or whiskey, and I have to say it is really worth checking out. 

• 2 oz. Laird's Applejack 86
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. Braeburn apple syrup
• 1 egg white
• 1 dash aromatic bitters (Hella used)
• 1 Braeburn apple slice garnish

Dry shake all ingredients except for the garnish, then shake again with ice. Double strain into a coupe. Garnish with the apple slice.  

To make the syrup, simply cook one diced Braeburn apple in a cup of water. (Note: keep the core and skin and stem for their potent flavors.) Bring it to boil and stir in a cup of sugar. Continue stirring on low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the apple pieces are soft and tender. Strain out the apple chunks and refrigerate syrup once it has had time to cool. (Save the apple pieces for dessert toppings--they're delicious.

Vampire Blues (Death & Co. Recipe)

This is it! This is just about as Halloween as a cocktail can get, at least at Death & Co., and about as sweet and fall spiced as I want to go. This is thanks to the addition of pumpkin butter and East India Solera Sherry--two very rich and yummy ingredients that make this drink taste like pumpkin pie. I love how bourbon adds the vanilla notes and cinnamon grated on top has that fresh spice scent you expect at this time of year. Everything about this drink, including its color, is perfect for fall.

• 1 1/2 oz. bourbon 
• 1/2 oz. East India Solera Sherry
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 1 tsp. pumpkin butter
• 2 dashes Angostura
• 1 cinnamon stick garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass full of ice cubes. Grate cinnamon stick over the glass and garnish the drink with the cinnamon stick. 

 

Doc's Dram (Death & Co.)

I get it. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," as the saying goes. Well, this is a prescription for happiness. Another cocktail making use of apple butter (I am using a local grower names Shawnee for my butters and jams.) This is a fall drink to end them all, I think. Solera sherry, rye, maple syrup and apples? What could be better?

But before you start to think this drink is all sweetness with no depth, I'll point out that Ransom Old Tom gin (my homemade Schiedam gin used) is some funky stuff. That and Angostura make this an exceedingly rich and interesting cocktail. Not a one-note fall sipper.

• 1 1/2 oz. rye (Catoctin Creek used)
• 1/2 oz. Ransom Old Tom gin (homemade Schiedam used)
• 1/2 oz. Lustau East India Solera sherry
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. apple butter
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1 apple fan garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled double rocks glass with a single cube. Garnish with the apple fan. 

 

Little Engine (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Some fun ingredients in this cocktail make it a sweet dessert drink, or something to enjoy on a fall day. Apple butter makes great spiced and sweetened cocktails and lends a little richness of color and flavor. Maple syrup, though, is almost necessary to balance the acids in this cocktail. 

I love how a mild scotch and port come together to make for a fruity spirit drink that almost feels like a sweet Sling. 

• 2 oz. Famous Grouse scotch
• 1/2 oz. 10-year tawny port
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. apple butter
• 1 apple fan garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with three ice cubes. Short shake and strain into a double rocks glass full of crushed ice. Garnish with the apple fan. 

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.

Whirling Tiger (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

There are a number of martial arts titled drinks involving whiskey in the Death & Co. book. This one unusually uses fuji apple juice--which might be the only Japanese-ish thing this drink has going for it. Overall, the Whirling Tiger is much more of a fall cocktail that tastes like a ginger spiced cold cider with the happy addition of bourbon. 

Again, I used my ginger brandy to flavor the simple syrup for this recipe so I didn't have to have a lengthy infusion. 

• 2 oz. Buffalo Trace bourbon
• 1 oz. fuji apple juice (R. W. Knudsen apple juice used)
• 3/4 oz. apple juice
• 1/2 oz. ginger syrup (simple and ginger brandy used)
• 1 fuji apple slice

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass fulled with ice. Garnish with the apple slice. 

Flannel (Difford's Guide Recipe)

 

Difford's Guide says that the Flannel is a good fall-weather drink, and it is. I was drawn to it because it has a lot of flavors we associate with cold weather drinks and punch. There's allspice dram (also known as pimento dram), orange zest, and cognac. 

There's even an unusual ingredient--apple sugar syrup. This can be made in several ways. First, by cooking sugar in an apple cider solution to make the syrup. You can also macerate apples in sugar and use the drippings. I did a quick and dirty shortcut by adding applejack to my simple syrup. That was an easy way to get this drink to the table and into me!

• 1 1/2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 1/2 oz. pimento dram (homemade allspice dram used)
• 1/2 oz. apple sugar syrup
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• orange zest twist. 

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large format ice cube. Garnish with the orange twist.

 

Pumpkin Spice Irish Coffee (Original Recipe)

 

Pumpkin spice is really a kitchen sink approach to spicing deserts: it includes ginger, cloves, cardamon, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon. You can buy this mix of spices or you can assemble them from your spice rack if you have one that is well stocked. The other way you can get spice in your coffee cocktail is to use flavored liqueurs. 

Cinnamon whiskey, while it is not a new item anymore, is a relatively recent way to add spice with your booze. It's not just for shots, that is. By comparison, allspice dram is an old way of preserving tropical spice in liquid form; it is basically rum cooked with sugar and allspice. Together these two liquors make up most of the flavors found in pumpkin spice. 

The rest you can sprinkle on top or work into whipped cream. This is a quick and dirty pumpkin spice recipe. Get creative, get inspired, get... Well, with whiskey in your coffee, quick and dirty is just an easy way of deciding Friday morning is part of the weekend. 

• 1 oz. cinnamon whiskey (MurLarkey cinnamon used)
• 1 oz. allspice dram
• 5 oz. of hot black coffee
• cream and sugar to taste
• pinch of ground and dried ginger
• pinch of ground nutmeg

Build the drink with liquors in a coffee mug. Fill with black coffee, add cream and sugar to taste and stir. Sprinkle additional spices on top.

Dutch Harvest Sour (Original Recipe)

 

There's no pumpkin in this cocktail--the harvest notes are suggested by a sprinkle of pumpkin spice on top of the Sour and the painting that I was working on in the background. 

But the fun thing about this cocktail is that it is a Genever Sour. It's hard to say what this drink is like because Jenever isn't whiskey and it isn't gin. It is a malty spirit that is aged in oak and flavored with juniper. That makes genever something between the two: perfect for making into a Sour, but rich enough that you can play around with fall flavors. 

I'm tempted to try it again on the rocks or up, but for now this is a traditional Sour glass. Stay tuned for cider versions and other fun creations using Genever for the fall season. 

• 1 1/2 oz. Bols barrel aged genever 
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. brown sugar syrup or to taste
• cherry and orange slice for garnish
• pinch of pumpkin spice
  

Combine genever, juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled sour glass and garnish with fruit.  Sprinkle pumpkin spice over the glass.

Bobbing for Apples (MurLarkey Edition)

Spiking some soft cider is a Halloween tradition. I'm getting ready by spiking, and thereby spicing, a glass of cider while decorating. This easy recipe makes your drink taste better and hit a lot stronger. While the proportions are entirely up to you (and you can go as hard as you want) I will caution that the more cinnamon whiskey you use, the more you feel the burn. 

An ounce of cinnamon whiskey makes a glass of cider taste like apples and cinnamon. Three ounces gives you a cinnamon jawbreaker effect, a little hot and tingly and definitely hard!

• 1-3 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• 6 oz. unfiltered cider
• apple slice garnish

Build cocktail in a Collins glass full of ice by adding whiskey and cider and stirring. Float apple slice on top or stick it into the ice as a garnish.

 

Harvest Cocktail (Original Recipe)

 

There's a Thanksgiving cocktail and a whole number of fall cocktails like the Grand Autumn, but I found it strange that harvest is not recognized. It should be, and it should be with a done with a rustic tasting cocktail with whiskey and end-of-summer flavors like apricot. 

This fall cocktail takes its inspiration from the many that have gone before. It is strong and rich, but palate cleansing at the same time with lemon and tea tannins. You get lavender and bergamot flavors from the Earl Gray tea infused into the MurLarkey three tea whiskey. The other teas, English Breakfast and Darjeeling, make for a deeper caramel color and nutty taste. The cocktail is bright and citrusy, but finishes crisp like dried leaves and fall aromas.

• 1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey three tea whiskey
• 3/4 oz. apricot brandy
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• several dashes of brown sugar syrup
• maraschino cherry garnish

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

Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned (Original Recipe)

To make this drink, I made a basic PSL syrup with turbinado sugar and spices. This was a quick solution to flavoring the syrup of a classic cocktail. The other special touch for this fall drink was the pumpkin-shaped orange zest. I'll deal with the instructions for these first.

Pumpkin spice is really a combination of lots of spices from the tropical regions of the world. Combine in a saucepan 5 allspice berries, 5 cloves, 5 cardamom pods, 12 anise seeds, and a half cup of dark sugar like turbinado or demerara. Add 1/4 cup of water and stir on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool. (I added 1 tsp. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey because it adds flavor and preserves the syrup.

To make the pumpkin-shaped garnish, simply use a peeler to cut a broad zest from a large naval orange. Be careful not to get any pith--that is a sign you cut the peel too deeply. Use a sharp knife to cut the shape of the pumpkin from the widest part of the zest. (using a pattern cut from card stock may be helpful for those lacking artistic skills.) Cut out a Jack-O-Lantern face of your desire and save for the cocktail.

• 2 oz. whiskey (MurLarkey Heritage used)
• 1 tsp. basic PSL syrup
• 1 dash aromatic bitters (Hella used)
• pumpkin-shaped zest garnish

Combine all ingredients except garnish in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain over large ice cubes in a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the orange zest.

Washington In-Cider (Original Recipe)

I needed a drink that would show off the flavors of Fall in Washington D.C., including local cider and spirits. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey suggested itself quickly, but I also like the taste of rum with cider. Cotton & Reed dry spiced rum adds spicy flavor without overloading with cinnamon and baking spices. Between these two spirits, the farmer's market cider needed only a little sugar.

• 1 oz. Cotton & Reed dry spiced rum
• 1 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
• non-alcoholic apple cider
• apple slice
• ground cinnamon

Build drink in a Collins glass with whiskey, rum and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Then add ice and top with apple cider and stir to combine. Garnish with the apple slice and dust it with cinnamon.

Happy Apple

This is one of the best fresh cider cocktails, and one of the easiest drinks to make to celebrate the fall season. You don't need much. Gold rum, unfiltered apple cider, and some citrus.

I decided that Jamaican rum is best used here. The appropriately named Appleton Estate rum is very characterful with brown sugar and spice notes. It lends mulling spice flavors to your cider.

• 2 oz. gold rum (Appleton Estate Signiture rum used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 3 oz. apple cider 
• lime twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into an Old Fashioned glass. Twist lime peel over the glass and garnish with it.