Apple Tinis & Paris Hilton

Sometimes at the end of the day, I get home and gaze into my liquor cabinet—my eyes wandering over the plethora of bottles, contemplating all of the possibilities. Then I get a bit of a panic attack trying to decide what to have. Something new? Something tried and true? Something complex? Something mind-numbingly simple? Something sweet or sour? Something boozy?

If I’m having no luck, sometimes I turn to the internet; maybe I’ll remember something that looked interesting that I found while doing research for this blog or maybe something totally new will jump out at me. While looking up information related to the Darb cocktail post, I ran across something that deserved its own post. It seemed to hold a common thread with the “-tini” craze that has overtaken America.

Months ago, Robert did a post on all of the possible variations of the Martini based on different gins, dry vermouths, and bitters available on the market. Look, if there are so many variations, why not just go crazy. This one is simple…a non-thinker…an easy to enjoy cocktail that everyone can go crazy over. Screw gin, screw dry vermouth and especially screw bitters.

As we pay homage to Paris Hilton, take out your cocktail shaker and get ready to destroy a classic…

2 oz Super Ultra-premium, Citron Vodka ($50 or more per bottle only please)
½ oz…no…1 oz. Sour Apple Pucker
½ oz of Cointreau or Plastic Squeezy-Bottle Triple Sec

Combine ingredients and about 5 cubes of ice in your cocktail shaker. Close the shaker and jump up and down once (for questions about general technique check this video out). Strain into a cocktail glass over your sink (you wouldn’t want to make a mess in the kitchen for your significant other to gripe about later). What was that? You forgot your cocktail glass and you strained it directly into the sink and it went down the drain? Oh crap, it looks like that was the last of your Apple Pucker? That sucks…you’re still in the mood for something apple-y? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have taken the Paris approach here, and just left something elegant alone. Nobody wants you to butcher the classics with your take on an apple version that certain looks nothing like the original. Maybe we can do better anyway, and sure, we can even keep the apple theme.

The Big Apple #2

2 oz. Applejack 100 Proof, Bottled in Bond
1 oz. Vya Sweet Vermouth
¾ oz. Lemon Juice
½ oz. Wood’s Cidermill Cinnamon Cider Syrup*
1 Dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters
¼ McIntosh or Granny Smith Apple
2 Drops Boyajian Maple Extract (optional)

First muddle the apple in your cocktail shaker with the Cinnamon Cider Syrup. Combine the liquid ingredients over ice and shake hard until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a thin slice of apple.

Wood’s Cider Mill from Springfield Vermont, specializes in boiled apple cider products. They take the juice from their fresh McIntosh apples and reduce it down 7-1. The result is a deliciously tangy and intensely apple-y syrup. For their cinnamon cider syrup, they steep cinnamon sticks in a mix of equal parts boiled apple cider and maple syrup. It doesn’t get much better than that. We’ve tried all of their products and absolutely love them.

The resulting drink goes down dangerously easy and will make you forget about every concoction resembling Apple Jolly Ranchers that may have been forced down you, against your will, at one point or another. I see this drink loosely as the bastard child of a Sidecar and a Manhattan, but obviously with new ingredients. It has the acid and sweetness of a Sidecar and the boozy spice of a Manhattan.

If one cares to give this drink an added layer of depth, add two drops of Maple extract. Fine maple extract as well as high-quality, pure citrus oils are available from the Boyajian company. Last month, I ordered their citrus oil sampler and free of charge, they included their new maple extract. It imparts all of that Maple goodness without changing the sweetness or volume of your drink. The citrus oils can be nicely incorporated in drinks where one really wants to highlight specific juices.

You might be saying, but Morgan, it is April! Fall and winter are long gone! Well, my apologies for not being seasonal. Think of this as a farewell to the cold months and follow it up with a Darb to ring in warmer weather.

**Question to Paris Hilton:
Really? Why would you take that picture?