Hellllo hello…. So I’d like to do a quick recap of the two cocktails I shook at our September Grand Tasting.
-Apple and Smoke. You’ll notice from September through December a slight obsession with apple based cocktails, distillates, pies, cider doughnuts etc etc. Maybe it’s being born and raised a New Englander, maybe it’s a the experience of picking apples from trees in Millbury and professionally at Glorie Farms in the Hudson Valley of NY. It could be the aroma, the balance of sweet and tart, the texture being so crisp and remincent of the fall weather.
Apple and Smoke is a fall Collins of sorts. Spirit, lemon, and effervesence. Woodford Reserve adds a beautiful plush smoke element to really define the drink. Try it with Scotch too!
2 oz Woodford Reserve
.5 oz Freshly squeezed lemon juice
.5 oz Cinnamon Simple Syrup, Sonoma Syrup Co.
-Shake and strain over ice into a collins glass.
-Top with hard apple cider such as Harpoon or West County Baldwin.
-Arolla Gimlet. Tad bit more of a November/December cocktail, but when I saw that we had gotten the Zirbenz in, I just couldn’t wait. Arolla is the name of the stone pine that grows throughout the Alps in Austria. It has a reddish hue unlike any cordial one might ever see, a sweet pine aromatic, and the flavor being mild, approachable and with a slight sweetness. We integrate this into a gimlet that uses Luxardo Maraschino as the sweetner…add layers…add depth. Simplicity and quality can be one in the same.
2 oz Beefeater Gin
.5 oz Freshly squeezed lime juice
.5 oz Zirbenz Stone Pine Liquor
.25 oz Luxardo Maraschino
-Shake
-Strain into cocktail glass
